


Supersonic

by moonchildthings



Series: The Academic Comics [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-01-04 16:36:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 61,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonchildthings/pseuds/moonchildthings
Summary: Born on October 1, 1989, Number Eight grew up with a strange power much like the other 43 children. After being adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, Jemma grows up with six other siblings with peculiar powers just like her and lived a not so happy childhood. Now in 2019, Reginald is found dead, the once missing Number Five reappears after 17 years, and, oh yeah, the world is ending.[Umbrella Academy][Season One][Ben Hargreeves x Female!OC][First in The Academic Comics]





	1. We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals

**Author's Note:**

> So... Umbrella Academy! Honestly, it's like my new favorite shows ever! I can't get enough of it and I thought, why not write a fanfiction about it. So, here we are; Supersonic. Hope you like this story and my character! Here are also the face claims for my character, just so you know.
> 
> Cast:  
Jemma Hargreeves(older) - Brittany Snow  
Jemma Hargreeves(younger) - Isabella Crovetti

**ON THE TWELFTH HOUR OF THE FIRST** day of October in 1989, all over the world, a strange set of phenomenons took place. Forty-three women from different countries simultaneously gave birth with one strange and unusual similarity linking them: None of these women had been pregnant when the day began.

An eccentric billionaire and adventurer, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, heard of these strange happenings and searched for as many of these babies as he could with the purpose of adopting them.

**HE GOT EIGHT OF THEM**

The billionaire brought them all to his home and raised each and every one of them. Well, in this case, 'raised' is quite a loose term. He trained the children from a young age to master the strange abilities that they were born with. Due to the rigorous training with no time for fun, those children would tell you that he wasn't exactly the most caring father to them. However, these children were quite well known to the world for their strange and peculiar powers. The Umbrella Academy, they were called.

Of course, nowadays, the Umbrella Academy wasn't much anymore. In fact, they had practically disbanded _ years _ ago. Each child went their separate ways as life moved on. Number One, also known as "Luther", was stationed on the moon! Though technically he was there on the orders of his father and sending him samples from the moon. Number Two, also known as "Diego", still did his superhero duties by fighting bad guys who robbed people and hurt innocent lives in the dead of night. Number Three, "Allison", was now a famous actress and celebrity who acted in numerous movies and television shows.

Number four, "Klaus", was a junkie who constantly went in and out of rehab. You could most likely find that man nearly ODing on some sort of drug in a dark alleyway somewhere or hungover with his best friend. Number Seven, "Vanya", was a violinist apart of St. Pluvium Chamber Orchestra, though not many people recognized her talents. Unlike any of the other children… Vanya wasn't special. She was completely ordinary. The last of the children was Number Eight, "Jemma", who had a relatively normal life and lived not far from her childhood home with a boring, routine lifestyle. Though every once in a while she would meet up with Number Four and get passed out drunk with him.

Despite all of the children apart of the Umbrella Academy splitting off from the team and continuing on with their lives, one major event would bring them all back together. That event just so happened to be the death of Sir Reginald Hargreeves himself on the twenty-fourth of March.

All of the Hargreeves children traveled back to their childhood home to see what had truly happened. Each arrived and different times that day. Though one of the last out of the family to arrive home was Vanya. She took a cab through the city streets as she reflected on the unusual childhood she and her siblings had. She remembered all the times she was excluded from just about everything due to her not being like her siblings.

All too soon, the cab ride came to an end and parked in front of the large, white Hargreeves home. She took a deep breath before entering through the gate and large doors.

She surveyed the vacant looking mansion with mahogany walls and pillars in the foyer. There were quite a few memories that she shared with her family in that room. She walked further into the room and was able to spy a blonde woman sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Hey, Mom," Vanya greeted her mother but she was silent. "Mom?" She tried again but her mother continued to stare off into space and not acknowledge her existence.

"Vanya?" A different female voice called from the top of the staircase, "you're actually here." Allison descended the stairs with a soft chuckle. The beautiful African-American woman smiled slightly as she grew closer to her sister. The two of them hadn't spoken in quite a long time much like the rest of their siblings.

Vanya flashed her a tight-lipped smile in return as she stared at her significantly taller sister, "hey, Allison."

"Hey, sis."

Allison came to stand only a foot in front of the brunette woman as the two stared at each other. They drank in each other's appearance after not seeing each other in over a decade. Vanya was still pale and small and wearing monotone colored clothing that surprisingly complimented her complexion well enough. She still seemed plain and boring. Allison was tall in her high heels, black dress pants, and a blue blouse as her appearance screamed confidence. Though it would have to now that she was an actress and constantly in the public eye.

Finally, after a moment, Allison reached over and embraced Vanya in a nice hug. Just as they let go of a long overdue hug, their brother, Diego, waltzed past them. As soon as he saw his ordinary sister, he scoffed, "ah. What is she doing here?" He didn't even bat an eye at them as he continued to make his way towards the stairs to the second floor. "You don't belong here. Not after what you did."

Allison sighed deeply, "you're seriously gonna do this today?" Diego didn't respond as he continued to march up the stairs. "Way to dress for the occasion, by the way."

"At least I'm wearing black."

Vanya briefly shook her head as her brother's words echoed in her head. She glanced down at the floor before looking back up at Allison. "You know what? I- Maybe he's right. And I shouldn't-"

Allison shook her head, "forget about him." Vanya stared at her sister in disbelief. She knew that her entire family hated her for what she had done to them. Though she didn't necessarily regret it entirely. She only really regretted how her siblings had come to hate her because of her book. "I'm glad you're here." They stood in awkward silence. It was clear that Allison didn't completely forgive her for the book, but she could forget about it for a while as they dealt with their father's death.

* * *

Upstairs in Sir Reginald's bedroom, the bulky figure of Luther dressed in thick clothing surveyed the room in search of something out of the ordinary. He looked everywhere! The windows, underneath the bed, in the closet, and anywhere that he may be able to find some sort of foul play. He just couldn't believe that his father had simply died of heart failure. Reginald Hargreeves was not a man who could die so plainly, Luther was certain of that.

Footsteps from down the hallway echoed through the nearly empty house. Though Luther's ears didn't register them as he was too busy looking around. A man, not as tall or bulky as Luther and tanner skin, came to stand in the doorway of the bedroom and lean against the doorframe. "I can save you some time," he told the other man. Luther looked over to find his brother, Diego, looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes. The stronger of the two returned the gesture with his own narrowed eyes as he turned away from the window. "They're all locked. No forced entry, no sign of struggle. Nothing out of the ordinary." Diego ventured in further to the room and got a better look at the blonde man. He couldn't help himself but gape at Luther, "oh, you got big, Luther." However, in usual Diego-style, he couldn't help himself but be annoying and a bit of a dick. "What's the secret, huh? Protein shakes? Low carbs?"

Luther rolled his eyes at the teasing as he kept his demeanor serious, "what do you want?" The slight hostility he held for his brother was quite obvious. Like the rest of their messed up family, it wasn't something uncommon to dislike the other members of the Hargreeves family.

Diego simply pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out towards Luther, "the autopsy report." Though he pulled it out of Luther's reach when he tried to take it just to be a nuisance. "Ah." He then finally gave it to Luther who practically ripped it out of his hands in frustration. He most certainly wasn't thrilled about seeing his siblings once again, especially Diego.

"And you have this why?"

"Well, that's because I broke into the coroner's office." Diego plopped himself down on a chair and shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "And surprise, surprise, Dad's death was normal. Just a boring, old heart failure."

"Yeah, so?" He looked over the report to find that his brother was right. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the old man's death. However, Luther wouldn't let it go. Reports and files could be forged and faked… He just had a feeling that something was up.

"So, why are you in here," Diego asked, "checking all the windows?"

Luther disregarded his question and asked his own, "were you the first one on the scene?"

He scoffed at Luther's obvious change of the subject and diversion. If anything, it almost sounded like there was an underlying tone of accusation in his words. Diego didn't like that. He raised his head at Luther's tone, "Pogo found him."

"Yeah, I talked to Pogo. He said he couldn't find Dad's monocle."

Diego clenched his jaw and shook his head, "and your point being?"

"Can you think of a single time you saw Dad and he wasn't wearing that monocle?" Luther didn't let him answer as it was obvious, "no. Which means someone took it. Which means there's a chance he wasn't alone when he died."

"There is no mystery here." Diego denied there being any strange occurrences happening to their father. Just because some sticking monocle goes missing doesn't mean that there was something sinister going on. He slowly stood up, "nothing to avenge. Nothing to solve, nothing like that. It's just a sad old man who kicked it in a big, empty house. Just like he deserved."

"You should leave," Luther just about growled. It was no surprise to him that Diego didn't want to find out about whether or not there was foul play apart of Sir Reginald's death. To him, the old man was nothing. Diego wanted to forget everything about what their father was like, and Luther only saw that as disrespect.

Diego glared harshly at his brother and nodded his head lightly. "Whatever you say, brother." With that, Diego turned on his heels and disappeared into the winding halls of the large mansion.

* * *

Vanya walked through the living room of the lavish mansion. She observed all of the pictures, books, and artifacts around the room. She came across the comic books of the Umbrella Academy, magazine covers and even her own book. Though her book was tucked away on a shelf and not displayed in cases and picture frames in the room.

She carefully plucked the seemingly untouched book from the shelf and read the title she gave it 'Extra Ordinary' with a sullen picture of her younger self on the cover. She opened it to see the message she wrote to her father on the first blank page.

_ 'Dad, I figured, why not? -V' _

"Welcome home, Ms. Vanya." A gruff voice broke her out of her memories. Vanya turned to find an anthropomorphic chimpanzee dressed in a sophisticated outfit with a walking cane and glasses.

Vanya smiled, "Pogo." She approached the chimp and the two embraced in a loving hug.

"So good to see you," Pogo commented as he took in the woman who he hadn't seen in years. It was slightly strange to see the now grown adults he had helped raise as children. He wished he could have seen them again under other circumstances. Far less tragic and depressing circumstances. He glanced down at the book she held in her hand and instantly recognized it. "Ah, yes, your autobiography."

"Do you know, um," Vanya started and paused for a moment, "did he ever read it?"

Pogo hummed to himself, "hmm Not that I'm aware of."

What else was she suspecting? Vanya sighed and gazed at the painting of a young boy who looked to be about thirteen that rested above the fireplace. "How long has it been since Five disappeared?" Yes, Five. Her beloved brother with the ability to teleport! The poor boy had been missing for such a long time.

"It's been sixteen years, four months, and fourteen days." Pogo instantly replied which caused Vanya to turn to him. Pogo nodded his head and explained, "your father insisted I keep track."

"You wanna know something stupid?" Vanya asked as she allowed a sense of nostalgia to wash over her. "I always used to leave the lights on for him. Jem and I were scared that he would come back, it would be late, and the house would be dark and he wouldn't be able to find us, so he'd leave again. So, every night we would make a little snack and make sure all the lights were on."

"Oh, I remember your snacks," Pogo chuckled as he too remembered years ago when Vanya and Jemma were children. "I'm pretty sure I stepped in half those peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches." He then sighed as they both once again gazed at the painting of Five, "your father always believed that Number Five was still out there somewhere. He never lost hope."

"And look where that got him."

The sound of the front door to the home slamming open brought them out of their wallowing about the past. A chilled wind swarmed through the foyer and drifted into the living room. Pogo and Vanya shared a quick glance before they walked into the foyer to see who had entered the house.

They walked over to see a woman, just a tad bit taller than Vanya, with short blonde hair closing the front door. She swayed slightly on her feet before spinning around on her heels to face the two.

Dull blue eyes that were slightly milky and unseeing laid themselves upon the pair. The woman's small pink lips were pulled into a large smile. She staggered slightly towards the two with a giggle, "Vanya! Pogo!"

She draped herself over the two in a sloppy hug that nearly caused the trio to fall to the ground. Pogo and Vanya held the woman up the best they could and pushed her back slightly to get a better look.

Her short blonde hair was messy and her bangs swayed with each shaky step she took in front of her blue eyes. Her green blouse was wrinkled and the white camisole over her small shoulders was askew. She wore a pair of faded blue jeans and black flats. She had a minimal amount of makeup on that was almost near perfect except for the fact that it appeared to have been applied on with slightly shaky hands.

"It's good to see you two!"

Vanya nodded her head with a small smile. Though she couldn't help but be slightly disappointed in the woman's appearance. "I'm surprised you came here, Jem."

The woman, Jem, only continued to smile, "me too!" She rolled her eyes, "but you know, I can't miss out on precious family time now that Dad's dead."

Pogo smiled softly at the woman, "It's good to see you as well, Ms. Jemma."

The final child of the Hargreeves family smiled widely as her teeth appeared to be perfectly straight and bright white. She looked around the rest of the foyer and stood on her own, though every few seconds she swayed on her feet. "Where's everyone else?"

"At the moment, I'm quite sure they're exploring the house," Pogo explained with a small smile. "I suspect you'd want to do the same after not being here for such a long time."

Jemma shrugged her shoulders, "I guess, but I'd rather not be all depressed right now. I think I'd rather take a nap." She walked past Pogo and Vanya towards the stairs. The strong odor of alcohol following after her. Vanya wrinkled her nose up slightly at the stench that she most certainly didn't like. She also didn't like that fact that it was attached heavily on Jemma. She hated to see her sister like that… "Wake me up when you need me!"

With that, Jemma shakily ascended the stairs(nearly tripping every other step) and disappearing to the higher floors in search of her childhood room. Pogo and Vanya shared a look with each other.

"It's good to see that all of you have come home," Pogo tried to lighten the mood. Yes, it was wonderful to see that the entire Hargreeves family had decided to return home due to the terrible news of Reginald's passing. Though each of the children seemed to have their problems. They could only thank their father for that.

* * *

Allison slid open the wooden door to her father's study. The room was covered in all sorts of pictures and paintings that Reginald had collected over the years. Even though the room seemed to be untouched for some time, the room was spotless. Though there was an odd paper did seem out of place or a pile of books laid out a desk or table.

She surveyed the room for a minute as a memory from her childhood resurfaced from the back of her mind.

_ It was night time. And all of the children were ready for bed. The eight of them were ushered into the room just outside their father's study by their mother. "The children are ready for bed, sir. They wanted to say goodnight." Grace said as she stood in front of Sir Reginald before turning to slide open the door to reveal the group of waiting children. They waited to see if their father would bid them goodnight but they didn't get an answer from him. He only continued to scribble on his papers and ignore them. A moment passed in awkward silence and Reginald still didn't even look up from his papers while the eight children waited for some sort of acknowledgment. Though what did they expect from the man? "Okay! Time for bed now, kids." Their mother exclaimed and started to usher the kids away. "Come along now. Come along now." The children each slowly started to walk away. Their mother stopped when she saw that Allison had not moved to head to bed like the rest of the children. She placed her hands on the girl's shoulders, "come along now, Allison, your father's busy." _

_ Allison scoffed and spun swiftly on her heels with a glare. "He's always busy." _

_ Jemma had instantly latched onto Klaus and Ben's hand when they turned to leave and started to pull them away as they sulked. She was more than ready to try and cheer them up best she could. She didn't want to see them like that at all! Though the moment she saw the scowl on her sister's face she instantly jumped to her side. "Don't worry, Ally!" The smaller girl said, "since dad won't wish us goodnight, I say we have a sleepover!" She said with a bright smile. "It's not like he's going to check on us, right?" _

_ Allison let a small smile slip onto her face, "I guess you're right. Okay." _

_ Jemma squealed and skipped next to Allison, "alright, we'll do it in your room since it's bigger! I'll get my stuff and tell Vanya, she'll like it too!" _

Allison was pulled out of her memory by a familiar voice as she ventured further into the room. "Where's the cash, Dad?" She was able to see the large, brown leather chair behind her deceased father's desk moving slightly as she also heard shuffling. "Where's the cash?"

Despite not hearing that voice for years, she was instantly able to recognize it, "Klaus?" She approached the desk and leaned over the side of it. "What are you doing in here?"

A head of black hair and a pair of wide blue eyes popped out from underneath the desk. "Oh! Allison!" He gushed while standing up. "Wow, is that you? Hey, come here." He pulled her into a hug, "long time. Too long. Hey, I was hoping to see you, actually, because I wanted to get your autograph. Add it to my collection!"

Allison shook her head at his behavior and looked him over. He wore a long black coat, a blue scarf loosely hanging from his neck, black shirt and pants and a hospital band on his wrist. She pulled at the bracelet, "just out of rehab?"

"No, no. No, no, no, no. No. I'm done with all that." He denied and continued on his a sullen voice. "I just came down here to prove to myself that the old man was really gone." His voice then did a one-eighty as he started to clap. "And he is! He's dead. Yeah! You know how I know? Because if he were alive, not one of us would be allowed to set foot in this room." He plopped down on the leather chair behind the desk and placed his sneaker-clad feet on the desk. The action would have most certainly earned a scolding from their father if he was alive! "He was always in here, our whole childhood, plotting his next torment, right? Remember how he used to look at us? That scowl?" He chuckled, "thank Christ he's not our real father so we couldn't inherit those cold, dead eyes!" He used his fingers to make his eyes appear bigger by pulling back his eyelids. He also tried to intimidate their father's voice, "ah! Number Three!"

"Get out of his chair," Luther gruffly demanded of his brother.

The two looked at the newcomer and gaped at their brother's appearance. "Oh, wow, Luther!" Klaus gushed as he stood up from the chair. Allison stared at Luther surprised at his large stature. Luther changed exponentially since she last saw him. Then again, she last saw him years ago! They all must have changed quite a lot since they last saw each other. "Wow, you really, uh, you really filled out over the years, huh?"

"Klaus."

"Save the lecture. I was already leaving." Klaus amended and walked out from behind the desk. Though he couldn't help himself but mutter slightly under his breath in annoyance. He smiled at Luther as he got closer to his escape. "You guys can talk amongst yourselves."

Luther placed a hand on Klaus' chest before the smaller of the two could leave. "Drop it," he demanded.

Klaus raised an eyebrow and tried to act surprised at his words. "Ex-squeeze me?"

"Do it. Now."

Klaus clenched his jaw and huffed as he pushed away Luther's hand, "all right. All right." He started to pull out a few assortments of trinkets that were obviously worth quite a bit. "It's just an advance on our inheritance! That's all it is." After a good amount of pricy artifacts fell out of his pockets, Klaus glowered at his brother. "No need to get your little panties in a bunch."

Allison only watched highly amused by the scene in front of her. Klaus then left the study and left the two of them alone. However, once Klaus slammed the door closed and got out into the hall he smirked widely. He pulled out a black and gold box out of the back of his pants and smiled widely at actually snagging something from the old man's study.

He kissed the box happily and started to make his way towards the entrance of the house. The plan of selling the extravagant box to get money for drugs was a go. As he started to make his way towards the stairs, Jemma popped out from around a corner.

As soon as Jemma got a glimpse of her brother she smiled happily and made a beeline for him. Klaus grunted as the woman threw herself into his arms in a hug. She laughed happily, "Klaus!"

"Ah, Jem," Klaus fondly greeted his best friend.

Jemma pulled back from him and looked up at him with half-lidded, electric blue eyes. Klaus sighed inwardly as he knew she was either drunk or on the borderline of being drunk. Her eyebrows furrowed as she saw the box in his hands as she tilted her head. Her blonde bangs sweeping over her eyes like a silk curtain. "What's that?"

Klaus looked down at the box before trying to hide it behind his back, "oh, this?" He waved it off dismissively, "it's nothing important really."

She stared at him bordley, "it's dad's, isn't it."

"Yeah," Klaus didn't even try to deny it.

Jemma stared at him before starting slowly as it seemed like she was trying to understand his intentions. "And you're stealing it to sell for money that you'll use to buy drugs."

"Ah, look at you!" Klaus exclaimed, "you know me so well."

The blonde shrugged her shoulders, "’Course I do, you're my best friend! And I won't tell." She pressed her finger to her lips in a sign that she'd stay quiet. "Our little secret."

Klaus laughed, "you're the best, sis."

Jemma giggled and started to walk past him, "Thanks, bro."

The two then parted ways. Jemma left to go to her bedroom for a well-deserved nap while Klaus went to sell the damn box for drugs. Meanwhile, in their father's study, Luther approached Allison who was leaning against the mantel behind the desk.

Luther sighed out amused, "so, Klaus is still Klaus, in case you were wondering."

"You know, after all these years, I find it strangely comforting." Allison laughed lightly.

Luther nodded his head as he thought of something else that would most certainly amuse them both. "Did you see Diego? With his stupid outfit?"

Allison scoffed in amusement as she remembered the outfit that Diego was wearing. "Oh, I know."

"Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom?" Luther couldn't help himself from asking.

"Like in the shower?" Allison asked surprised.

"Yeah."

She exclaimed, "yes, absolutely!"

The two allowed the image of their brother wearing the ridiculous outfit while showering entertain them for a moment before silence embraced them.

Luther coughed lightly, "I, uh I wasn't sure you'd come."

Allison nodded her head and looked away from him. "Me neither."

"You look great." Luther couldn't help himself but compliment her. He could never stop himself from doing that, ever since they were kids.

Allison stared at him for a moment before smiling softly and whispering, "thanks."

He pursed his lips as he asked a question, "where's Patrick and Claire?"

A dark look passed over Allison's features. He realized that he probably asked the wrong question. Something most certainly happened while he was gone."Patrick filed for divorce eight months ago." Luther gaped at the news as Allison looked at him with slight annoyance before she realized something, "of course you don't know, you've been gone."

Luther waited a moment before asking a question that he wasn't sure would make the atmosphere worse. "What about Claire?"

"He got custody."

"Shit." Luther swore as silence washed over them, "well, you could always do your, uh, you know _ rumor _ thing."

Allison scowled harshly and shook her head as she snapped at him. "Yeah, I don't do that anymore."

Luther swallowed as he saw the look on her face. Something happened, he knew. Something terrible. He should have been there to make sure that she was alright! However, he had his obligations to the Umbrella Academy and their father. "What happened?"

"Same thing that always happens." Allison huffed out as she pursed her lips. "I made a wish, and it came true, and I couldn't take it back."

* * *

All of the siblings sat in the living area as the crackling of the fireplace was the only sound heard in the silence. Though every once in a while the clinking of glasses could be heard from the bar as Klaus got himself a drink or two.

Allison sat on a chair sipping sparsely on her glass of alcohol as she stared off into space. Diego sulked on a chair not too far from her with his arms crossed and head turned so he wouldn't have to look at anyone else. Luther sat on a couch that faced Vanya who sat in the middle with Jemma next to her on the far right of it and closest to Allison.

"Um…" Luther started as he stood up, "I guess we should get this started. So, I figured we could have a sort of memorial service in the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at Dad's favorite spot."

Allison interjected inquisitively, "Dad had a favorite spot?"

"Yeah. You know, under the oak tree." Everyone stared at him in confusion. "We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?"

"Will there be refreshment?" Klaus asked as he walked over to the group with two glasses of alcohol, a trophy in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth. He handed Jemma a large glass of alcohol who nodded in thanks and instantly started to gulp the liquid that burned her throat. That action from the blonde gained a few stares from the others in the room. "Tea? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner."

Luther stared at him in bewilderment, "what? No." He gestured to the cigarette, "and put that out. Dad didn't allow smoking in here."

Allison stared at the obviously hyperactive man who walked around the living room with eyebrows furrowed. "Is that my skirt?"

"What?" Klaus looked up at his sister before nodding his head, "oh, yeah, this." He gestured to the black skirt that reached down to his ankles. "I found it in your room. It's a little dated, I know, but it's very breathey on the bits." Jemma snorted loudly at his words which earned her a cheeky smile from her best friend.

"It looks great on you!" Jemma cheered as Klaus posed.

"Listen up," Luther cut off any jokes and fun that Jemma and Klaus could try to have. "Still some important things that we need to discuss, all right?"

"Like what?" Diego called out.

Luther looked at all of them, "like the way he died."

Diego sighed in frustration while shaking his head, "and here we go."

Jemma's eyebrows furrowed as she allowed herself to breathe from her drink. "I don't understand."

Vanya nodded her head as she agreed with her sister, "I thought they said it was a heart attack."

Luther nodded her head, "yeah, according to the coroner."

Jemma rolled her hazy eyes at his tone, "well, wouldn't they know?"

"Theoretically."

"Theoretically?" Allison's voice was dripping in confusion much like everyone else's thoughts.

The large man nodded his head, "I'm just saying, at the very least, something happened. The last time that I talked to Dad, he sounded strange."

Klaus slouched in his seat on the couch as he gargled the alcohol in his mouth. "Oh, quelle surprise!"

Jemma pursed her lips with furrowed eyebrows. Her father was a strange man, no matter what. To suggest that he was acting even more abnormal than usual must of meant something. "Strange how?" She asked around her glass that rested against her lips.

"He sounded on edge." Luther revealed, "told me I should be careful who to trust."

Diego shook his head, "Luther, he was a paranoid, bitter old man who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles."

Luther clenched his jaw, "No. He must have known something was going to happen." He then turned to Klaus who was giving Jemma the rest of his drink. "Look, I know you don't like to do it, but I need you to talk to Dad."

Klaus scoffed, "I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, '_ Dad, could you just stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call? _'"

He stared at him with his eyebrows pulled together in confusion and frustration, "since when? That's your thing."

"I'm not in the right… frame of mind."

Jemma to a swig from her cup as her words came out slightly slurred, "he's high."

"Yeah! Yeah! See, Jem gets it!" He shouted excitedly as he pointed at the blonde, "I mean, how are you not, listening to this nonsense?"

"Well, sober up, this is important."

"Who cares!" Jemma shouted loudly with a roll of her eyes, "daddy's dead! Yay! Woo!" All of her siblings stared at her in bewilderment. Well, Allison, Luther, and Diego did due to them never seeing the blonde act like this before. Vanya just sighed as she was all too familiar with her behavior and the telltale signs of Jemma becoming drunk. Surprisingly, Klaus also sighed at her behavior as disappointment peaked through his high state. "Now, I say we mourn dear old dad, drink and try not to kill anyone. 'Cause I am _ down _ with some more drinking!" Allison pulled the glass of strong alcohol from her sister's hands before the short blonde could let her pale lips wrapped around the glass. Jemma whined once it was taken from her and reached out for it. "No! Ally!"

Luther shook his head at her antics and continued on in a serious tone, "then there's the issue of the missing monocle."

Diego scoffed with his arms crossed, "who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?"

"Exactly." Luther exclaimed, "it's worthless. So whoever took it, I think it was personal. Someone close to him. Someone with a grudge."

"Where are you going with this?" Klaus asked in exasperation.

"I may be slightly buzzed," Jemma interjected once she got over the fact that Allison wasn't going to give back her drink. Her bright blue eyes were narrow and hazy but still held a growing amount of betrayal and hatred. "But it sounds like you're accusing _ us _ of killing him."

Luther grunted softly as she basically figured out what he was getting at. How could he not? He had been away for years while the rest of them were here on Earth with some pretty good motive to go after their father. He will admit that their father wasn't the nicest man there was, but he deserved their loyalty and respect. Which is something that the others would rarely ever give Reginald!

The others stared at him with wide eyes that were slowly filling with betrayal. "You do?" Klaus gasped.

"How could you think that?" Vanya asked softly in surprise.

Diego shook his head as he passed by him. He hit him on the chest, "great job, Luther. Way to lead."

Luther quickly tried to amend what he meant, "that's not what I'm saying."

"You're crazy, man." Klaus exclaimed as he stood up from his seat "You're crazy. Crazy."

Luther watched as the rest of his family stood up and started to make their way out as well. "I've not finished."

"Sorry," Klaus apologize even though there was no tone of a sincere apology in his voice. "I'm just gonna go murder Mom. I'll Be right back."

Jemma jumped up from her seat with a now empty glass, "Oh, I'll come help you, Klaus. Might as well as kill Pogo while we're at it!" She sent one final glare at Luther before following after the rest of her siblings.

"That's not what I was saying. I didn't-" Luther tried to explain himself but the damage had already been done. His siblings knew that Luther had a strong sense of loyalty to their father. However, for him to think that they would be willing to go so far as to kill the man was absurd. Yes, Reginald would never receive the 'greatest father' award but that didn't warrant one of his children committing murder against him! "Allison," he called out to her, but she also left the living room along with the others without sparing him a glance. Soon enough he was left alone in the living room. "Jeez. That went well." It most certainly didn't.


	2. Guess Who's Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Chapter Two! I'm glad to see that quite a few of you like this story so far. I'm having a fantastic time writing this! Jemma is probably one of my new favorite characters to write. I just can't wait until the story gets into the thick of the plot. Now let's continue with the story!

_ **17 YEARS AGO** _

_**PEOPLE STOOD AROUND THE BLOCKED OFF ENTRANCE **to the Capital West Bank. Police vehicles, news vans, and cameras littered the outside of the bank. "In five, four, three, two This is Jim Hellerman," a reporter started as he stood in front of a camera. "Reporting live for Channel 2 News outside of the Capital West bank at Main and Sixth. A group of heavily armed men stormed the bank not three hours ago and took an unknown number of hostages."_

_As the large group of onlookers waited anxiously to see some sort of sign from inside the bank, it was chaos inside. There was a large number of hostages inside and nobody was certain what would happen to them if the robbers didn't get what they demanded._

"_Hey, get them behind the counter!" The man who seemed like the leader of the group of robbers shouted out the order to the others as he held a large phone. He pulled the phone to himself and spoke to the police who were on the other side of the line. "Now you've put me in a position where I gotta do something I don't want to do. Hmm?" He hung up on the phone and shouted in frustration, "Shit!" A young African-American girl in a school uniform skipped up towards the man. What was quite strange was that she was also wearing a domino mask on her face. The robber's eyebrows furrowed when he saw the girl and he scowled. "Hey, get back with the others."_

_She turned to him with a mischievous smile, "I heard a rumor."_

"_What?" His eyebrows were furrowed as he stared at the young girl in annoyance. "What did you say?"_

_Allison leaned in closer to him as he leaned down to hear her better. She placed her hand over her mouth as if she was telling him a secret and spoke to him right in his ear. "I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot." The robber lost the scowl on his face as he became dazed and his eyes became hazy. He lost all coherent thought as Allison's words were the only thing he could hear. He turned to another one of his masked buddies and raised his gun._

"_Hey, dude." the other robber said as he noticed his partner pointed his gun at him. "What the hell?" With the dazed look still on his face, the man who had his gun raised pulled the trigger and allowed himself to just as Allison said._

_Outside, people cringed and ducted at the sound of the shots. Police officers grew anxious at the sound and were nervous about getting inside. "We just heard shots from inside the bank." The same Channel 2 News reporter, Jim, said after the shots. "It's uncertain if any hostages have been harmed in that."_

"_Up there!" Someone shouted as they pointed towards the roof of the bank. Everyone stared at the figure that scurried across the top of the bank._

"_There's some movement on the roof." Jim reported, "possibly law enforcement."_

_Luther came crashing down through the glass roof and landed right on top of another robber. Using his super strength he bashed the robber's head into the counter before throwing him across the room. The robber screamed as he was thrown from the bank and out of the window like a baseball._

_Everyone outside jumped at the appearance of the robber and turned to the now unconscious man on the ground in shock. "Looks like one of the armed robbers has been thrown from the bank." How that could have happened, they weren't sure. However, something strange was most certainly happening inside the bank_

"_Guns are for sissies," Diego shouted as he came running into the room with his two long silver daggers held in his hand. "Real men throw knives." He threw the dagger in the direction of the leader of the band of robbers only for them to curve mid-air and impale another goon._

_A small blonde girl came walking into the room as a robber tried to hold back the hostages. She turned towards the man who held up his AK in her direction and stopped a few feet in front of him. "Can you let those people go, mister." Her voice was soft and sweet like honey as her lips were pulled back in a wide smile._

_The robber sneered at her as he knew that this little girl would be just like those other kids. "Get back, girl! Before I kill you!" The hostages with duct tape on their mouths and wrists all cowered at his shouts._

_The young girl tilted her head and allowed her long hair to sway slightly. "That wasn't nice." The robber didn't care whether it was nice or not. He also didn't care about whether it was morally right to shoot a little girl who appeared to pose no threat. However, these robbers most certainly didn't know all too much about morals. He pulled the trigger of his gun to shoot the small girl only to find that she had moved out of the way with killer speed. The girl tutted and shook her head as the wind whipped around her and caused her hair to sway wildly. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to shoot people?"_

_The robber shouted in frustration and pulled the trigger again only for the blonde to move at lightning speeds to avoid the bullets. With a speed that could only be dreamed of, the young girl ripped the gun from the man's hands and whacked him across the face with it before he even knew what was happening. He fell to the ground with a thud as he was now unconscious._

_She cringed at the sight of the criminal on the ground who would have a nasty bruise on his face from her hit. "Sorry, mister robber." The hostages then watched the girl as she turned to them with a wide smile. In only a few seconds flat, each and every one of them had the duct tape binding their wrists and covering their mouths ripped off of them. The girl yelped happily as she threw down the wad of duct tape onto the ground. "You guys are okay now!"_

_Jim turned to the camera and addressed the audience to the news show once again. "I've been in many hostage situations, like this," he told the camera, "and it can escalate very quickly."_

_The ringleader climbed the counter in the middle of the room with his gun pointed at the kids in front of him, fearfully. The hostages watched the strange sight. It wasn't every day that you see an adult man with a gun frightened of a group of children. "Get back, you freaks."_

"_Hey, be careful up there, buddy," Diego called out mockingly as the man backed away from them on the counter._

"_Get back now!"_

_Allison joined in on the taunting, "wouldn't want you to get hurt."_

_Suddenly, a boy popped out of nowhere and sitting right behind the man which startled him completely. "Or what?" He then disappeared once again when the man turned to shoot him. He shot multiple shots in the place where the boy once was in frustration. These kids were complete freaks! He looked around the room to see if he could find the teleporting boy only to hear a sound behind him once again. He spun around to find the school uniform-clad boy with his arms crossed. Thinking that he finally had the boy, the robber raised his gun to shoot the kid right in the chest. However, he only found out that he now held a stapler in his hand instead of his gun. The boy laughed, "that's one badass stapler!" Then he used the stapler in the man's hand to hit the robber over the head which created a large, bloody cut and the man to fall off the counter unconscious._

"_Although there's been no activity for a few minutes, we're gonna stay live on location to make sure we don't miss anything in this hostage situation at the Capital West Bank."_

_Ben shifted from foot to foot as he looked at the other children around him in uncertainty. "Do we really have to do this?"_

"_Come on, Ben." Luther sighed out, "there's more guys in the vault."_

_Jemma appeared at his side in a blur as the wind whipped the group at her arrival. She flashed the boy a soft smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Ben. It'll be over soon."_

_Ben stared at her for a moment and sighed heavily. Her smile held such promise and reassurance that he was filled with the obligation to do his part. "I didn't sign up for this." He opened the glass door and entered the vault._

_Screams from the hostages who were let go filled the air as they all ran out of the bank in a panic. How could they not panic after what they've just seen? "Now we see the hostages. They- They're free." Jim observed, "they're scared, clearly, but they do seem to be unharmed."_

_There were also the horrified and pained screams of the other robbers who were inside of the vault. The children all gathered around the door as they waited for the final member of their team to finish up. Jemma cringed at the sight of the blood and bodies being pressed up against the glass as Ben used his power to kill them all. The inhuman sounds and screeches disturbed her slightly as she looked away from the scene._

_When the screams died down and the roars of the beasts under Ben's skin diminished, the door then opened to reveal the boy. He was covered head to toe in blood as he shakily exited the room. He sighed heavily and took in a deep breath. "Can we go home now?"_

_Jemma's small nose crinkled up in slight disgust at the sight of her best friend covered in blood. In only a few seconds with the wind whipping around the room, Ben was cleaned up of the blood to the best of Jemma's ability. Ben sighed out in relief after being somewhat cleaned up. He flashed the blonde a small, thankful smile, "thanks, Jem."_

_She returned it and brushed off her slightly red hands as she grabbed his hand with a heartwarming smile and gave his hand a comforting squeeze. "No problem, Ben!"_

"_People are coming out now," Jim said as the seven uniform wearing children exited the bank and came to stand in a line in front of it. Jim's voice was drenched in confusion at the sight. "It's not the armed robbers. These are young schoolchildren in uniforms with masks on."_

"_Lower your weapon!" A police officer demanded even though the children obviously had no signs of weapons on them._

"_Jim Hellerman, Channel 2 News." He said as he and the cameraman tried to get a closer look at the group in front of the bank._

_There were an array of questions that were shouted at the children who only continued o stand tall and proud due to their accomplishment. One asked, "how did you get in the bank?"_

"_What happened inside?" Another shouted._

_Across the way on a tall building, Sir Reginald Hargreeves watched the scene unfold through a telescope. He was quite satisfied with the end result of the debut for the Academy. He knew that this was the start of promising things for the team._

_Next to him, a girl with brown hair also watched them. She turned to her father, "why can't I go play with the others?"_

"_We've been through this before, Number Seven." Reginald gruffly said as he turned to the girl. "I'm afraid there's just nothing special about you."_

_Vanya bowed her head in disappointment, "oh."_

"_Our world is changing," Reginald declared as now he stood in front of the group of children. Cameras flashed and took pictures of the proud and peculiar children behind him as he spoke. "Has changed. There are some among us gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary. I have adopted six such children. I give you the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy."_

_Questions were shot at him quickly left and right from all of the reporters there. "Mr. Hargreeves! Mr. Hargreeves. Channel 9 News. What happened to their parents?"_

_Reginald looked indifferent at the question as he stood to the side of the children. "They were suitably compensated."_

_Another woman spoke up with another important question, "are you concerned about the welfare of the children?"_

"_Of course." He firmly said, "as I am for the fate of the world."_

* * *

"Listen up, old man." Klaus said as he paced in front of the bar in the living room. The ashes of his father sat on the bar itself as he spoke to it. He was trying(and failing) to use his powers to communicate with Reginald as Luther had wanted. "You know, if I was murdered, and if one of my sons- _adopted_ sons happened to be able to commune with the dead, I might think about, I don't know," he laughed out. "I don't know, manifesting!" He shouted out and throwing his hands up while he started to grow slightly frustrated. "Do the whole big angry ghost lecture. Tell everyone who done it, and find eternal peace."

Jemma watched the scene with a raised eyebrow as for once she wasn't sipping on a glass of alcohol. Even though she really wanted to have something to numb her mind, Klaus had forbidden it for the time being. However, thanks to her fast metabolism, her body easily burned through the alcohol and became sober quite quickly. She could guess that was one upside to her superspeed. Though if she wanted to stay drunk, it meant that she would have to constantly be drinking the liquid to keep her mind hazy.

"Eternal peace is probably overrated." She told him from her seat at the bar next to the urn of their father's ashes.

Klaus snapped his fingers at her words as he seemingly agreed with her. Klaus just about glowered at the picture of the old man and sighed. "Come on now, Reggie. Any time now. Please." Jemma found quite a lot of entertainment from watching Klaus try to use his powers. An amused smile was plastered on her face. "Just need to sober up! Clear thoughts." He hit himself on the face a few times as if that was what would sober him up. "Come on! Come on, chop-chop!" He shouted while clapping his hands impatiently. Jemma snickered as he grew even more frustrated, "you always were a stubborn bastard!" He pointed all around the room as if their father was there somewhere. He sighed and shook his head at the fact that he was getting nowhere with his powers. "I don't know about you, but I need a drink."

"I'll take one too if you don't mind," Jemma smiled sweetly only to pout when Klaus shook his head sternly. Well, as sternly as you could get when you were completely high. She stuck out her lip, "But Klaus!"

"Nope. None for you, sister!" He then reached over the counter to get what he needed to make a drink only to accidentally knock over the earn. Reginald's ashes went everywhere across the bar. Klaus gasped before laughing, "Oh! Oh."

Jemma shook her head as she moved away from the bar. "Good going, Klaus. If dad wasn't pissed already, he certainly is now."

Klaus shook his head as he disregarded the ashes and started to get a glass for his drink. He waved his hand over his shoulder in her direction and asked a rhetorical question, "when was he _not_ pissed?"

The blonde puckered her lips as she thought about that for a second, "I guess you're right." She then sighed, "anyway, since you won't let me have a drink," she glared at him for that. He merely raised his hands in surrender before continuing to pour himself a drink. "I'm going to my room."

Her brother nodded his head as he flashed her a tight-lipped smile. "Alright, and don't try sneaking out to get a drink, young lady!" Klaus did his best to imitate a father scolding his child.

Jemma rolled her eyes with a cheeky smirk, "like you would even know if I've left or not." With that said, the blonde disappeared in a blur and a gust of wind which left Klaus alone with his thoughts.

He shook his head at her words. He didn't like the fact that she drank herself stupid every day. He didn't like how she tried to drown herself to death in alcohol. If Jemma wasn't a speedster and didn't have a fast metabolism, he was certain that she would have died of alcohol poisoning years ago. Though he supposed that's how she and the others felt about him and his drug usage.

* * *

All of the Hargreeves children tried to make themselves comfortable in the house. Luther and Allison went to their bedrooms and started to go through all of their things. Allison looked at an old magazine with herself on the cover and even found the heart-shaped locket that she had had ever since she was a kid. '_A+L_' was engraved on it.

Luther rummaged through his old stuff in his room also. He looked through the array of records that he had and the books that he used to read. His room was left the same ever since he left for his mission on the moon.

Also in her old bedroom, Jemma plopped herself down on the green duvet of the small bed. Multiple posters of boy bands from when she was a kid were plastered on the walls along with pictures of her family from years ago. One particular picture frame caught her eye. It rested on her desk face down. She walked over to her desk and picked up the picture and what stared back at her caused her stomach to turn slightly. It was of herself when she was about sixteen. She had a bright smile as always and her eyes were alight with happiness. She was encased in a pair of arms that belonged to her best friend, Ben. She shook her head at the sight and put the picture frame down again. Though this time she kept it upright instead of it being face down. She stared at it a moment longer before turned to lay down on her bed facing away from the picture. It was obviously too painful to look at it.

Klaus shuffled into the basement kitchen with his father's urn in his hands. He placed the ash-filled container on the table before rummaging through his coat pockets. He found a small baggie with a few pills inside of it. These were the drugs that he had bought with the money he got from selling that box. He poured them out into his hand, "three?" He sighed at the amount, "okay!" He threw back his head and swallowed the pills before hopping onto the table and laying down on it.

Diego plopped himself down on the couch in the living room and laid down with a soft sigh. He pulled out a small dagger from a sheath on his person and started to play with it. The thoughts of his family's dynamic running through his mind bitterly. How Luther could just insinuate any of them for killing their father is baffling! Yes, Diego hated Reginald and has no problem saying that out loud. However, he wouldn't have gone as far as to _kill_ the old bastard. None of them would have gone as far as to commit murder!

In the foyer, Vanya sat on the grand stairs alone. She felt completely out of place in the home. Her family didn't seem to want her there and she couldn't completely commend them for their thoughts on her. She did basically reveal all of the deep, dark secrets of their family to the public. She can understand their hatred for her.

Luther bent down to the various records that he owned and pulled out one in particular. He pulled it out of its case and set it into the record player. The rhythmic beats of Tiffany's "_I Think We're Alone Now"_ echoed through the house. Everyone could hear it from Allison who was right next door to Luther to Klaus in the basement.

"_Children Behave,"_ Jemma shook her head at the song and continued to lay down on her bed. Though she couldn't deny that she felt like dancing slightly, just a little bit. The song just reminded her too much of her childhood. At least, it reminded her of the good parts of her childhood. "_That's what they say when we're together!"_

Everyone else had the same feeling. All of the superpowered adults started to dance around the rooms that they were in. Klaus had started to use Reginald's urn as a dance partner while Allison danced with a fluffy pink boa on her bed. Diego hopped around the living room after closing the door to the room so no one would see him. Vanya also started to dance as well, though it appeared slightly awkward and stiff. Eventually, the music got to Jemma who started to dance around her room. She could forget about everything for a moment and let the old pop song encase her in some sort of momentary joy.

Though the moment of bliss didn't last for long. Jemma squeaked when thunder boomed from outside. A blue hue poured through the windows as she took a look outside to see a large portal like thing in the courtyard. Her eyes widened before she sped out of the room and outside. For a moment, she was glad that Klaus had stopped her from getting drunk. However, she was certain that she would need a drink after witnessing whatever the anomaly was.

In the basement, Klaus jumped at the sound. "Oh!" He gasped and caught his father's urn before it could clatter to the ground as it slid across the table like it was being pulled by an invisible force. "Daddy?" He then jumped out of the way when an assortment of sharp objects, specifically knives, flew through the air and embedded themselves into the wall.

Everyone came running out of the house and into the courtyard to see what the hell was going on. Jemma was already out there and pretty close to the strange thing. They all stared at it and came to stand before it.

"What is it?" Vanya shouted over the loud noise.

Allison shook her head while staring at his and moving to stand next to Luther. "Don't get too close!"

Diego grabbed Jemma's hand and pulled her back as he thought she was too close to it. "Yeah, no shit."

Luther assessed the large portal, "looks like some sort of temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two."

"Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan," Diego shouted which earned him a smack on the shoulder from Jemma.

Klaus then came running out of the house with a fire extinguisher held in his hands, "Out of the way!"

Everyone stared at him in disbelief. "Klaus-" Jemma started out in concern and confusion. Klaus only tried to use the extinguisher on the portal thinking that it would do something. Though when it proved to do nothing, he just threw it into the portal which caused it to disappear.

"What is that gonna do?" Allison asked in exasperation.

"I don't know." Klaus stated in vexation, "do you have a better idea?"

The wind and thunder then started to pick up as lightning seemed to strike the ground around them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Luther shouted as he pushed Klaus behind him. "Everybody get behind me."

"Yeah," Diego agreed and made sure that Jemma was behind him. In turn, Jemma made sure that Vanya was close by to her and behind their brothers. "Get behind _us_."

"I vote for running, c'mon!" Klaus tugged on Jemma's arm to hopefully get her out of there only for her to stay planted on her feet. She was far too enraptured with whatever the large blue portal was. A figure then appeared on the other side of it and seemingly was trying to push its way through. A body then flew out of the strange portal and landed on the ground hard. The portal disappeared as quickly as it appeared and left the figure there and everything went back to normal.

Whoever fell out of the anomaly shifted slightly on the ground and slowly sat up. The person, a young boy, wore a grey suit and tie that was obviously too big for him. Everyone stared at the boy with wide eyes as they recognized the unforgettable face of the boy who had been missing for nearly two decades. Klaus was the first one to speak up, "does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?"

Number Five stared at the older versions of his siblings before glancing down at himself. The realization of the situation he was now in dawned on him as he started to curse himself. He may have been able to travel back in time but somehow, he got the equations slightly off. "Shit," that was the first word that the siblings had heard Number Five mutter after seventeen years.

Jemma stared at her _little_ brother for a long moment in shock before sighing deeply, "I _definitely _need a drink now."

* * *

The group of seven all sat or stood in the basement kitchen. Six pairs of wide eyes watched the seemingly young boy bustle around the kitchen in search of a snack. "What's the date? The exact date," Five asked as he started to grab a few things around the kitchen.

"The twenty-fourth," Vanya told him through her shock.

Five nodded his head as he started to make himself a well-deserved peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. That amused Jemma slightly. The fact that even if it had been some time since he had been gone, Five would still jump at the chance to eat his favorite snack. "Of what?"

This time it was Jemma who answered him with wide eyes that she had yet to tear off of him, "March."

He glanced up at her and stared for a short moment before turning back down to his sandwich. "Good."

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked sternly though Five stayed silent. Everyone glanced at each other as they tried to comprehend what was happening before Luther stood up to tower over little Number Five. "It's been 17 years."

Five scoffed and glared at the large man. "It's been a lot longer than that," he then spacial jumped from in front of Luther to behind him on a stool to grab something off of a shelf. Something that annoyed Luther and the others to no end!

Luther clenched his jaw and muttered under his breath, already annoyed, "I haven't missed that."

"Where'd you go?" Diego asked with his arms crossed.

"The future," Five commented offhandedly like he was answering a question about the weather. "And it's shit, by the way."

"Called it," Klaus couldn't help but put his two cents in with a raise of his hand. Jemma rolled his eyes at his comment and hit him over the head. His side comments weren't necessary at that moment. Finding out what happened to Five was the most important thing that they should be worrying about.

Five only continued to make his peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich as he explained everything to them. "I should've listened to the old man." He sighed, "you know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He finally looked up at stared at Klaus who was still wearing Allison's skirt while crisscrossed on top of the table. "Nice dress."

Klaus gasped out in a bashful, playful manner as he twirled the skit slightly, "oh, well, danke!"

Vanya shook her head and tried to stay on task. "Wait, how did you get back?"

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time."

Everyone stared at him as if he had grown another head. No one could understand what the hell he had spewed on about. The group was all smart individuals but none of them were intelligent enough to truly understand all the time travel science that Five had explained to them. Diego shook his head, "that makes no sense."

Five flashed the group a tight-lipped, sarcastic smile, "well, it would if you were smarter." At his insult, Diego jumped out of his chair to lunge at his brother. However, Luther held him back as both of them glowered at him.

"How long were you there?" Luther asked in order to try and sever the uncomfortable and soon-to-be hostile environment. It seemed like even after all this time, Five was still the annoying brat they knew and, reluctantly, missed. Though, at the moment, just about everyone was questioning _why_ they missed the boy.

"Forty-five years," his answer earned him even more wide-eyed stares of disbelief. "Give or take."

Luther, baffled, stumbled over his words, "so what are you saying? That you're 58?"

"No," Five turned up to them with an annoyed scowl. "My consciousness is 58. Apparently, my body is now 13 again." The way that he stared at them made it plain to see that he thought they were all idiots. They most certainly couldn't understand what he was trying to explain which frustrated Five quite a bit.

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked him though didn't get an answered.

Jemma shook her head from her seat beside Allison and rubbed her temple. "This is getting so confusing," she sighed out before taking a swig of her alcoholic drink.

Five ignored them as he turned away with his sandwich in hand while an unreadable expression crossed over his young face. "Delores kept saying the equations were off," He shrugged his shoulders before taking a large, satisfying bite out of his sandwich. "Eh. Bet she's laughing now."

All of their eyebrows furrowed at the mention of someone they did not know about at all. "Delores?" Vanya asked.

Five once again ignored her and shrugged his shoulders, indifferently, "hmm." He picked up the discarded newspaper for that day where a stoic picture of his father stared back at him blandly. He read the headline: '**CITY SAYS GOODBYE TO REGINALD HARGREEVES**' "Guess I missed the funeral."

Luther's eyes narrowed, "how'd you know about that?"

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Growled Five in annoyance. He stared at the picture for a long moment, "heart failure, huh?"

"Yeah," Diego confirmed only for Luther to grunt out with a disagreeing; "no."

"Hmm." Five hummed before throwing down the newspaper back onto the table. "Nice to see nothing's changed."

The group watched in bewilderment as Five stepped away from the table, "Uh, that's it?" Allison spoke up, "That's all you have to say?"

Five didn't look back at them as he made his way or the exit to do god knows what. "What else is there to say? The circle of life."

The group of six were left without their missing, now found, brother who seemed to not care about Reginald's death at all. It was taking them all a moment to comprehend everything that had just happened in such a short amount of time. "Well…" Luther broke the silence. "That was interesting."

* * *

After speaking with his siblings, Five instantly ran up to his old bedroom in search of some more suitable clothes. It felt strange to be back in his old childhood home after forty-five years. The last time he had seen the Academy, the building had been reduced to rubble and ash while fire decorated everything. He sighed while opening up his wardrobe to get some new clothes. However, the moment he opened it, he grimaced slightly. He rummaged through the multiple uniforms that were completely identical to each other. He sighed when he knew that there was nothing else to wear. "Ah, shit."

The boy then found himself standing in the living room and gazing at the portrait of himself hanging above the fireplace. Soft footfalls greeted his ears as Vanya entered the room. He glanced over his shoulder and caught a glance at the small woman. "Nice to know Dad didn't forget me." He said as Vanya slowly came to stand next to him. He turned to her and took in a deep breath, "read your book, by the way. Found it in a library that was still standing. I thought it was pretty good, all things considered." Vanya gnawed on her bottom lip as Five nodded his head with pursed lips. "Yeah, definitely ballsy, giving up the family secrets. Sure that went over well."

Vanya gulped as an expression of sadness washed over her pale face. "They hate me." Her voice came out weak and soft.

Five shook his head slowly, "oh, there are worse things that can happen."

"You mean like what happened to Ben?" Vanya couldn't help herself but ask the question.

The mention of their brother, Number Six, caused even more tension to flood the room. "Was it bad?" Five asked stoically. From reading Vanya's book, he knew that Ben had died young. He could tell that his death had fractured the family even more than it had been before. He also could not imagine how painful it was to lose him at that time. In the past, when he first found out about Ben's death, it was saddening to hear. However, he also found out about it right after all of humankind had been wiped off of the Earth. A death of one single person was insignificant to that of the extinction of an entire planet.

The silence that was a response to his question instantly answered his question. Vanya's mind then jumped to Jemma. The blond was the most heartbroken over Ben's death. It seemed like a part of her also died that day along with Ben. She never truly was the same after his death. Vanya knew that Jemma was the closest to Ben as the same could be said about Ben being close to her. They were attached to the hip basically all their lives. Jemma had been torn apart when he died… Vanya hated that Jemma had fallen into the deep, dark depression that caused to become a chronic alcoholic.

As if she heard Vanya's thoughts, said blond appeared in the doorway of the living room. Her short hair had been pulled back slightly by a soft green colored headband. Her makeup was fixed and her clothing had been straightened out(no doubt the work of Allison) and a small rosy hue licked from one of her cheekbones to the other and up the bridge of her nose. Jemma appeared to be slightly buzzed but it would soon pass quickly due to her superspeed. She flashed her two siblings a small, kind smile. "I think we're going to start the memorial for dad," she took in a deep breath. "We're going to do it in the courtyard."

"Alright," Vanya said as she looked at Five and gestured them to follow after Jemma who still waited for them at the doorway. "Come on."

Five stared at Jemma for a moment with furrowed eyebrows before nodding his head. The trio then headed towards the courtyard to meet the rest of their family for the memorial to Reginald Hargreeves.

* * *

Rain poured down from the dark sky. It was completely appropriate for the droplets of rain to pelt the umbrellas in the courtyard. All of the Hargreaves family crowded together right by the spot that Luther talked about earlier. Jemma hugged her midsection to try and keep herself warm. The white cardigan she wore wasn't doing the trick. She stood beside Klaus who carried a small pink umbrella and Five who shared his umbrella with her.

"Did something happen?" Grace asked airily with a smile. It was strange… Their mother seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that their dad had _died_.

Allison's eyebrows furrowed, "Dad died. Remember?"

"Oh," Grace then frowned at the reminder, "Yes, of course."

They all shared a look in confusion. Jemma spoke up from underneath the black umbrella she was currently sharing with Five. "Is Mom okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine." Diego denied with a sniff, "she just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

They all nodded their head at that, yet they didn't seem too convinced. However, that wasn't all too concerning at the moment. Getting through this memorial to their father was the main focus on their minds. Yet, all of his children's minds were filtered with a variety of different thoughts. There were many in between but at least one thought that they all had in common was 'thank god he's gone'. Well, except for Luther. The boy was ever loyal to his father!

Pogo stepped up holding his own umbrella, "whenever you're ready, dear boy."

Luther nodded his head solemnly and opened up the urn to pour the ashes out of it. In an anticlimactic manner, the dust just fell limp to the ground. Everyone was silent as they either stared or glowered at the pile that was once Reginald Hargreeves. Luther cleared his throat, "probably would have been better with some wind."

"Does anyone wish to speak?" Pogo asked and only earned silence in return. It was obvious that either no one wanted to speak because they didn't know what to say or they knew exactly what to say and they weren't exactly pleasant words. Pogo sighed, "very well. In all regards, Sir Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt. He was my master and my friend, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy."

Diego clenched his jaw as he could no longer stay quiet, "he was a monster. He was a bad person and a worse father. The world's better off without him."

"Diego," Allison tried to scold him only for him to snap at her in return.

"My name is Number Two. You know why? Because our father couldn't be bothered to give us actual names." The others shared glances with each other at his words that were completely true. "He had Mom do it."

At the mention of her name, Grace perked up with a large smile, "would anyone like something to eat?"

Vanya shook her head, "no, it's okay, Mom."

Grace's smile didn't falter, "oh, okay."

"Look, you wanna pay your respects? Go ahead." Diego shook his head as he walked so he stood into the middle of the small circle. "But at least be honest about the kind of man he was."

Luther growled at the disrespect Diego was spewing out, "you should stop talking now."

The anger had built up between the two was growing even more and was on the verge of snapping. From the glares that they were sending each other, it was only a matter of time before their emotions boiled over and they did something drastic. "You know, you of all people should be on my side here," Diego shouted, "Number One."

"I am _warning_ you."

Diego continued to taunt him, "after everything he did to you? He had to ship you a million miles away."

Luther's body started to shake from anger, "Diego, stop talking."

Diego jabbed his finger into Luther's chest and poked him multiple times, "that's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you!" And that was the last straw. Luther swung at Diego who quickly ducked underneath his arm.

"Boys," Pogo shouted out, "stop this at once!"

The two only ignored his shout and focused on each other. The two of them had only just started to let out their frustration and anger on each other.

Diego started to taunt Luther with a smirk, "come on, big boy!"

"Stop it!" Vanya shouted out desperately.

"Hit him!" Klaus encouraged the two, "hit him!"

Pogo couldn't watch the scene any longer. So, with a shake of his head, he turned around to head back inside.

Jemma was starting to get annoyed with the childish ways of her brothers. In the past, it was quite a feat to annoy Jemma as she was a very tolerable person. She used to be patient and understanding of everyone. Though she could really only blame her alcoholism for causing her to become intolerable easier than in the past. "Guys come on, just stop!"

The two of them ignored their families calls to end their fight and continued to throw punches and dodge others. "Get off me!"

Five heavily sighed out in frustration while watching them, "we don't have time for this." He then spun on his heels and disappeared into the house. That left Jemma to embrace the cold droplets of water that fell onto her skin now that she didn't have an umbrella to protect her.

"Come here, big boy!" Diego taunted. Luther then jumped and aimed a bunch at Diego only for the smaller of the two to jump out of the way. His punch then collided with the statue of Ben which caused it to break loose and fall to the ground with a loud thud.

Jemma clenched her eyes shut as her body started to shake slightly. And it wasn't due to the cold, at all.

Allison stared at the scene lamely, "And there goes Ben's statue." Luther watched as she shook her head lightly at him before turning around to head inside.

Diego stared at Luther who was momentarily distracted by Allison's departure and pulled out one of his knives. Vanya's eyes widened when she saw him to that. "Diego, no!" The knife then flew through the air and cleanly cut Luther in his arm. The large man panted out slightly in pain before covering up the wound and rushing to get inside. As they watched their brother dash back inside, Vanya approached Diego. "You never know when to stop, do you?"

Diego glared at her and bent down slightly to her smaller height. "You got enough material for your sequel yet?"

She wouldn't allow his malicious taunts get to her at that moment. She understood how she betrayed the family and was willing to accept that. However, she wouldn't let Diego insinuate at she was only there to get material for her _sequel_. "He was my father, too." With that, Vanya turned around and walked away.

Diego disregarded her comment and approach his mother who stared off into space with a small smile on her face. "Mom. Let's go inside." He grabbed her arm gently and started to lead her away. "Come on. Okay? Come on."

Only Jemma and Klaus remained outside. The junkie's eyes were trained on the ashes in the ground. He stood up from his spot on the stone bench and lazily trotted over to the remains of his father. "I bet you're loving this. Hmm?" Klaus asked the pile of ash as he crouched down to be level with it. "The team at its best. It's just like old times." Klaus lazily took a drag from his cigarette before sticking it into the pile of ashes that was once his father. He stood up and turned around, "best funeral ever." Klaus exclaimed as he started to walk back towards the door that leads into the house.

He looked back over his shoulder to see Jemma still standing in the rain without any protection from an umbrella. Rain pelted down on her and flattened her hair to her skull. The make-up that was on her face started to run across her flustered cheeks as she continued to stare at the broken statue of her dead best friend.

"God, you'll get a cold out here," He commented as he walked over to her. He used his child-sized, pink umbrella to cover her. "I don't want a repeat of last week." The remembrance of last week where Jemma had gotten ill and still insisted on getting drunk surfaced in his mind. Let's just say that it hadn't turned out well for either of them… Or that bus driver…

Jemma shook her head, "don't worry, I'll only be a minute or so… I just need to be alone."

Klaus was about to interject and tell her to come inside only for his eyes to drift off at an empty space just off to the side of Jemma. For a moment, he was silent, as if he was listening to something(or someone). He then sighed and nodded his head, "fine, _fine_! But don't come whining to me when you get sick!"

His sister let out a weak giggle at his words. She nodded her head, "I promise I won't get sick and if I do, I'll stay as far away from you as I can."

Satisfied with her answer but still slightly concerned about her thoughts, Klaus nodded his head and skipped towards the door into the house. "See ya, Jem."

Jemma sighed as she rolled her eyes at his behavior. She knew for a fact that Klaus was going to enjoy himself with the drugs that he had bought a few hours ago. Her electric blue eyes surveyed the courtyard and landed on the now empty platform where Ben's statue once was. Her cheeks were soaked. Whether it was from the rain or her own tears, she wasn't sure.

She slowly approached the fallen statue and stared at it long and hard. If she really was crying, no one would have noticed. Well, only two people probably would have. However, one of those people was currently getting as high as a kite while the other was… well dead.

Though it wasn't like she could notice the figure sitting on the empty platform next to her. They stared at her from underneath their black hoodie with eyes filled with sorrow and regret as they watched her crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Jemma! I feel so bad for her. I picture her being a pure little girl when she was younger and when she was apart of the team. I also tried to express her different emotions clear enough for this chapter. You know, how she feels about the fight between Luther and Diego, Ben's death, and Five's reappearance. Also, now you know that she's a speedster! You'll definitely read some more scenes between Jemma and the others involving her powers. I can't wait to post more chapters!


	3. Coping

** _17 YEARS AGO_ **

** _"NIETZSCHE ONCE SAID," REGINALD BEGINS TO MONOLOGUE,_ ** _"'Man is as a rope stretched between the animal and the superhuman. A rope over an abyss. It is a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling, and halting.'" The group of seven super-powered children waited at the bottom of the stairwell. Reginald Hargreeves and Vanya waited at the top. Training for the day had begun and each child was ready to show off their ability to be the first to get to the top of the stairwell. Reginald closed his red and gold book before looked to Vanya with a nod of his head. Vanya blew her whistle and all of the other children took off up the stairs. Well, six of them did. One girl remained at the bottom of the stairs and seemed to be waiting patiently. The six kids tripped over each other and took two steps at a time as they raced to reach the top. Luther and Diego were really the only two who were fighting to be first, seeing as they were a tad bit more physically fit than the others. "'As much as you must strive for individual greatness, and strive you must, for it won't come to you of its own accord you must also remember that there is no individual stronger than the collective.'"_

_Five then used his ability to allow himself to spacial jump in front of the leader, Diego. "That's not fair," Diego huffed out in frustration, "Five's cheating!"_

_"He adapted," Reginald snapped and wrote something down in his little red book. A gust of wind then brushed against both Reginald and Vanya. They turned to their right to find Jemma standing next to them with her arms behind her back. Reginald's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the girl. "I suspected you getting up here quicker, Number Eight."_

_Jemma shrugged her shoulders sheepishly, "I thought I'd give them a head start."_

_"The ties that bind you together - make you stronger than you are alone." Now all of the children(sans Vanya) along with Grace and Reginald all were in the foyer of the home. A constant, annoying buzzing sound resonated in the air along with whimpering. Diego flinched as a tattoo artist marked his left wrist with the Umbrella Academy symbol. Each child would earn their branding today for being apart of the Academy. Grace tried to comfort Diego only for him to flinch back. While Diego was getting his tattoo, Allison and Klaus had already received theirs. Klaus hugged Allison as the two of them whimpered softly at the ink that now branded their skin. "They will make you impervious to the pain and hardship the world will thrust upon you. And believe me when I tell you, life will be hard. It will be painful." Luther, Ben, Jemma, and Five sat in chairs in a line, waiting to get their tattoos. Luther tried to keep himself composed and looking strong. Five watched the process with a grimace on his face at the impending pain they would all receive. Ben looked to be scared out of his mind. Jemma was just as frightened and was shaking slightly. Though the two of them tried to be strong for each other. That was evident from the fact that their hands were intertwined tightly to offer silent support for one another._

_On the staircase leading up the main stairwell, Vanya watched sadly by herself. Feeling left out, she pulled a black marker out, uncapped it, and began to draw the same brand onto her wrist. She wanted to fit in with her siblings and wished she could be involved. Even if it meant feeling an immense amount of pain._

_"We can accomplish anything when we accept responsibility together." As all of the children were fast asleep in their beds, Reginald sat at the bedside of the little blonde girl who appeared to have been swallowed by her green duvet. He brushed a lock of her long hair from her face which caused the small girl's nose to scrunch up adorably. She then shifted in her sleep when her father placed an electrode onto her temple just like he had done to his other children. "This is what creates trust." Reginald flicked through multiple camera angles of the children on a screen as they all slept peacefully while he sat in his study. Meanwhile, he scribbled down notes into his red book and listened to the beeping from the scans being conducted on the children. "Together, you will stand against the reign of evil." He then flickered onto Vanya's screen where the beeping increased significantly._

* * *

The house was still filled with a thick tension from earlier events. As soon as the fight between Diego and Luther had calmed down, everyone thought it was best to stay away from each other for a short time. Just so that way, they could all calm down. Though it was starting to get late and soon enough nighttime would blanket the city. The time for each of the children to leave and head to their own homes was approaching fast. There wasn't much doubt about them trying to forget about each other and not speak to each other once again. At least, not until something else brought them all together again which seemed highly unlikely. There was just too much toxicity that some of the siblings held for each other. Specifically, towards Vanya.

Said woman stood in the foyer of the home. She popped open her medication and instantly took a pill from it. She had grown increasingly anxious and nervous because of today, so she was in dire need of something to calm herself down. Another way to do that was to also leave her childhood home as soon as she could. She obviously wasn't welcomed by most of her siblings. Leaving just seemed to be a way for the uncomfortable aura to decrease just a tad bit.

She sighed out in what seemed to be exhaustion as she waited at the front door. She then heard footsteps and the soft clanking of a cane. She turned around to see Pogo approaching her with a sad expression. "Don't waste your time," Vanya said with a shake of her head. "Diego's right, I shouldn't have come."

"This is your home and always will be," Pogo stated firmly. Though he retired his will to keep her from leaving. He knew that Vanya wouldn't stay for long due to her always feeling like an outsider in the family. He smiled kindly, "should I get you a taxi?"

Vanya denied it, "I already called one. But thanks." A car horn then sounded from outside. "That's me."

Pogo glanced down and cleared his throat slightly, "uh, I hope you know your father loved you very much." Vanya stared at him and bit the inside of her cheek, "in his own way."

"Yeah, well, that's kind of the problem, isn't it?" Her father had such a strange way of showing his love… Excluding her from everything that her siblings did and constantly telling her that she wasn't special certainly showed how much he loved her. "Take care of yourself."

"You as well, Miss Vanya." The ape could tell that he wasn't getting anywhere with Vanya, and he couldn't blame her. She was practically ostracized from her own family. If it wasn't for Jemma, Grace and himself, Vanya wouldn't have been allowed to come as the rest of the family felt that they were betrayed by her.

Vanya turned to exit the home and never be welcomed back when a thought struck her. She should have thought of it sooner! She should have done it before she called the cab or even after the fight between Diego and Luther, but it seemed to slip her mind. She had a feeling that Jemma wasn't feeling the best after what happened to Ben's statue. She should have been a better sister and checked on her sooner. However, now it seemed like she would have to do it at a later date. And most likely comfort a drunk Jemma instead of a sober Jemma. If she had to be honest, Vanya certainly liked seeing her sister sober after being a chronic alcoholic for so long. She was glad that Jemma at least tried to restrain herself from drinking so much for that day. Albeit she did drink before she arrived there and was certainly drinking now, however, she was at least sober during the memorial for their father. That was nice… "Tell Jemma I'll see her later."

Pogo bowed his head in acknowledgment. He actually already had the thought of checking on the blonde earlier in his mind, "I will."

Vanya then exited the glass door decorated with the Umbrella Academy logo and outside where she got into the cab. As she left, Pogo watched her with narrowed eyes. They were drenched in worry and a forbidden knowledge as the cab carrying the powerless Hargreaves child away.

* * *

Downstairs in the basement, Jemma slouched in one of the wooden chairs that were sat around the table. She nursed a glass in her hands that were filled to the brim with whiskey. She wasn't a complete fan of the stuff and would much rather have vodka or something, but she'd just have to deal with it. When one is trying to numb the pain, it doesn't really matter what they use to do so.

Klaus and Five were also in the basement with her. Klaus sat at the head of the table with his feet perched upon it as a guitar was held in his hands. The guitar was a gift that he had gotten from Jemma when they were teens. It was something Klaus could never get rid of even if his father hated the fact that he had it. They were never allowed to have fun which included the toys and such that they tried to enjoy as children.

The last of the trio was searching through the cupboards and cabinets of the small kitchen. You would have thought that the boy was looking for some sort of treasure with the way he frantically searched. Every once and awhile, Jemma would eye her younger-looking brother in confusion. It was like she was still trying to process the fact that Five was actually there.

Yeah, she could see the uniform-clad boy with her own eyes. However, she felt like it really was just a part of her imagination. Honestly, it wouldn't have been the first time she had imagined her brother in the past. Alcohol could surprisingly induce quite a few depressing hallucinations for her. Not only that, but she's had quite a few different dreams about seeing Ben again.

She also thought that it was a dream or something due to her siblings having just let the fact that he was back go far too easily. He suddenly appeared after having been gone for seventeen years! Then he reappears looking the same as he did the day he disappeared but apparently his consciousness is fifty-eight. The family had gone through some weird shit but this probably took the cake for her. Though she couldn't blame them for just disregarding it. Five seemed to want to stay away from them as much as he could which confused Jemma quite a bit.

If he wanted to be so far away from them she was certain that they would do the same. Nobody really showed themselves to care about each other that much anymore… which Jemma hated so much. Yet as the strong liquid was burning through her system and dulling her senses, she couldn't give a fuck about that at the moment. She was currently more focuses on trying to get rid of the crippling depression that had settled itself in her chest after the days' events. There were just far too many memories and emotions that had resurfaced that brought her mood down too much. They weren't all unpleasant or anything… yet there were still the major ones clinging into the back of her mind and dragging her through a roller coaster of emotions. Of course, her only resolve to deal with these emotions was to drink herself silly, much to her family's dismay.

Klaus and Vanya used to Jemma's alcoholic tendencies as they were usually there to see it themselves. Klaus had been there for her at the beginning and, as much as he regrets it now, was actually the one to encourage her to do it. He thought that it was best for her at the time… He didn't think that it would get this out of hand for her. And seeing as Jemma was close with Vanya and talked to her quite a lot, Vanya knew about her sister's problems. The rest of the family wasn't as accustomed to it. Jemma was the enigma of the family. It wasn't due to her powers or anything like that but it was due to the fact that she actually stayed in touch with all of her siblings. Well, she at least tried to.

Jemma wanted to keep her family together and didn't want to lose the relationships that she had with her brothers and sisters. It was slightly hard to do so. Luther had been on the moon for the past four years, so that prevented her from contacting him. She talked with Klaus and Vanya the most while she spoke with Allison regularly(whenever she wasn't busy with work and such). She tried to stay in touch with Diego but he seemed to develop that 'superhero mindset' and thought that it was best she stayed away from him. She could tell that he didn't want that but convinced himself it was ideal. He just couldn't really stop her from running to his place and speaking with him every once and awhile. Though she tried to keep her problems to herself and away from her family, sans Klaus and Vanya. She didn't want to burden them more than they already were.

As the three sat in silence, Allison came bounding down the stairs with her curly hair bouncing wildly. "Where's Vanya?" She asked with furrowed eyebrows once she only saw three of her siblings.

"Oh," Klaus started offhandedly, "she's gone."

"That's unfortunate," Five said as he ended his search and came to stand next to Jemma's chair.

Allison sighed out sadly, "yeah."

Though they now could see that he was less disheartened by the fact that his sister had left as he held a coffee pot. He seemed to have found something far more important to complain about. "An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee."

All of the others rolled their eyes at him. Jemma allowed her lips to be torn from her glass for a moment and interjected, "Dad hated caffeine."

"Well, he hated children, too," Klaus laughed sarcastically, "and he had plenty of us."

They all shared a glance with each other before three pairs of eyes landed on Five who stared at the table for a moment. He then grunted, "I'm taking the car."

"Where are you going?" Klaus sat up in interest.

Five scowled at him, "to get a decent cup of coffee."

They all stared at him bewildered as Allison questioned him, "do you even know how to drive?"

The younger looking boy clenched his jaw and set a glare in their direction. Jemma mentally questioned what had really ticked him off for him to be so… irritated. "I know how to do everything." Then, just like that, he spacial jumped out of the basement and outside to find the car.

Jemma scoffed, "someone's got a stick up their ass."

Klaus quickly stood up and turned to his sisters. "I feel like we should try and stop him," he paused for a millisecond and quickly changed his mind with a chuckle, "but then again, I also just kinda want to see what happens." They all then heard a car engine come to life outside. Five found the car it seems. They could hear the car peel off of the property on a quest for some coffee.

"All right," Diego exclaimed as he descended the stairs. It was obvious that he was ready to leave the house and return to his borderline illegal work as a superhero. "I guess I'll see you guys in, what, ten years? When Pogo dies?"

Allison shook her head at his words and bit out spitefully, "not if you die first."

"Yeah, love you too, sis." Diego scoffed with a raised eyebrow, "good luck on your next film. Hope it turns out better than your marriage, huh?"

"Diego!" Jemma scolded him in a shaky voice. That was a low blow!

Diego paused in his steps and glanced at her over his shoulder. He stared down the tipsy woman who pinned him down with the harshest glare she could muster. He shook his head lightly before quickly turning back around to head outside. Even when buzzed, his sister seemed to try and be the peacekeeper.

Jemma then softened her glare and turned to her sister when Diego continued on. She saw the look on Allison's face as she gazed after their brother and bit the inside of her cheek. She watched as Allison then turned to leave the basement and didn't stop even when Jemma called out, "Ally! Wait!" She gave up when Allison stomped away and opted to just rest her head on the table. She wanted to comfort her sister, however, she may want to do that sober. Yet she still wanted to wallow in her self-induced numbness for a little while longer before she tried to talk straight to anyone.

Klaus jumped over to his brother, "Are- are we leaving?"

Diego shook his head firmly and started to stress, "no, I'm leaving, me by myself."

"Oh, fabulous!" Klaus ignored his denial and clapped his hands excitedly, "I'll get my things."

Diego just continued on his trek outside to his car. He had no intention of allowing his brother to follow him as Klaus intended. He tried to get out of the house as fast as he could before Klaus could get to his car and tag along.

As Klaus passed by Jemma who looked about ready to pass out on the table, he rested a hand on her shoulder lightly. She barely gave any indication that she felt him give a tight squeeze on her shoulder except for a soft grunt. "You'll be okay, right?"

She mumbled through her slurred voice, "yeah, think I'll stay here for the night."

Klaus pursed his lips slightly before nodding his head, "all right, I'll see you later." With that, he scurried away to get his stuff. Jemma sighed heavily through her nose before sitting up enough to take a swig of her cup. Sure, her family had finally gotten together after years of ignoring each other, yet they tried to get as far away from each other as fast as they could. Was Jemma upset with that fact? Yeah, she was. However, she was too numb at that moment to really give a shit. She was probably going to be too drunk to do anything for that matter for at least a few hours. She honestly just wanted to forget everything that had happened today.

Outside, Diego was on the homestretch. He had gotten to his car quickly and without any hiccups in his journey. Though his mini triumph was broken when he head fast steps coming up from behind him, "Hey! Diego." Diego groaned as Klaus came running out and jumped into the back seat. Klaus clapped Diego on the shoulders with both of his hands as he continued to talk, "you know, every time I close my eyes, I see a diarrhetic hippo about to shit on my face. It's terrifying!"

That was something that Diego didn't really need to know nor wanted to. He sighed out heavily in exasperation as he accepted his fate with his brother. "Terrific." He started up the engine to his car that instantly roared to life.

"No!" Klaus shook his head in a daze, "no."

Diego rolled his eyes and said with a monotone voice, "lean back." Klaus did as told as the car rolled out of the alleyway and into the city.

In the bedroom window that gazed down at the alleyway, Luther watched through his blinds as his brothers disappeared into the night. He sighed before turning to his injured arm that seemed excessively covered in hair.

Grace walked elegantly in her black dress and pearls to the area on the second floor that was covered in paintings. Every inch of the three walls was caked in so many paintings ranging from large to small. She sat down at the chair in front of them all and gazed at them like she always did. The android stared at them longingly as emotions seemed to swirl in her eyes. Androids don't have emotions… or at least they aren't supposed to. As she admired the paintings of landscapes and still life a silver and blue plug rose out of the seat that she was sitting in. As normal, the plugs inserted themselves into her ears to power her down for the day.

* * *

Tires screeched against the parking lot asphalt in Griddy's Donuts. The quite, cheap looking donut shop was dead in the night. The shop seems to be closed, however, that notion was waved off from the large neon sign on top of the shop illuminated in the darkness. Five jumped out of the car that he had taken from his home with purpose and quick strides. He certainly was on a mission to get himself a cup of coffee.

He pushed past a departing customer and made a beeline for the counter. He sat himself down on the stool just as another man came into the shop and plopped himself down next to Five. The balding man took a quick glance at the young boy next to him with an expression of confusion. What was a kid doing out so late by himself? He could only mentally shrug his shoulders at that.

A woman wearing a hot pink and dingy white uniform then shuffled out of the back room. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled up in a bun though there were a few strands of hair poking out every which way. She pulled out a writing pad and pen before sighing with a welcoming smile, "sorry, sink was clogged. So, what'll it be?"

The older man knew exactly what he wanted, "uh, give me a chocolate eclair."

"Mm-hmm. Sure." She gestured over to Five who waited patiently to be spoken to, "can I get the kid a glass of milk or something?"

Five scoffed and then demanded after the man stared at the waitress in confusion, "the kid wants coffee. Black."

"Cute kid," She chuckled nervously. The older man just stared at her in bewilderment as Five flashed her a tight-lipped smile in order to seem innocent. The situation was quickly becoming further awkward as the seconds ticked by. She cleared her throat uncomfortably and turned to do her job, "okay."

The old man and Five sat in silence for a moment as Five looked around the dingy donut shop. "Don't remember this place being such a shithole." He reminisced, "I used to come here as a kid. Used to sneak out with my brothers and sisters and eat doughnuts till we puked. Simpler times, huh?"

"Eh." His nostalgic rant only earned a strange look from the older man. The way that this kid spoke was completely strange. "I suppose."

The hot pink waitress returned with their orders, "here."

The man pulled out some cash, "I got his."

"Thanks," Five said to the man who started to dig into his pastry. He stared at the man and took notice of the old patch that indicated the man worked for a towing company. The young looking boy took a sip from his bitter coffee. "You must know your way around the city."

He looked over at the younger looking boy and nodded his head in uncertainty, "I hope so. I've been driving it for 20 years."

Five nodded his head, "good. I need an address."

Once the man finished his treat and gave Five the information he needed, he bid the boy a quick goodbye before exiting the shop. He climbed into his truck and started to drive down the road towards his own shop. He didn't even notice the group of bulky, strapping men watching the shop with narrowed eyes from the shadows. As soon as the truck completely disappeared and the men thought that the coast was clear, they all walked towards the shop to confront the assassin inside.

Five didn't even turn around when he heard the front door open. He was able to see the reflection of the group clad head to toe in black clothes come up behind him. Their weapons were held in their hand menacingly, yet Five didn't even bat an eye at them. He only sighed, "hmm. That was fast. I thought I'd have more time before they found me."

The leader of the group held his gun pointed at the back of Five's head. "Okay. So let's all be professional about this, yeah? On your feet and come with us. They want to talk."

"I've got nothing to say."

The armed man tsked, "it doesn't have to go this way. You think I want to shoot a kid? Go home with that on my conscience?"

"Well, I wouldn't worry about that." Five started placidly as he picked up the dinner knife that was in front of him and started to twirl it in his nimble fingers. His eyes hardened and grew cold at the snap of a finger. They were the eyes of a killer and it seemed like it wouldn't look right on a child's face. However, it fit perfectly on Five's young face. "You won't be going home." With that, all hell broke loose in a matter of milliseconds.

* * *

A cold breeze drifted through the air a licked across the water as Diego stared at what was in his hand. "_Do you ever remember a single time that Dad wasn't wearing his monocle?_" The distaste he held for the simple object hanging in his grasp was quite evident. Even more so when he dropped it right into the calm waters below.

"Yoo-hoo, Diego!" Klaus' scratchy voice broke through Diego's moment, "I hate to rush you through any kind of brooding moment you might be having, but come on, man, we're starving!" Klaus sighed in exasperation and shut the door to the car harshly. He turned to the figure who sat next to him that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. They wore a black hoodie that covered the top of their face through a strong jaw poked out from underneath the shadow the hood cast. It was the same figure that had been in the courtyard. The one that had watched Jemma cry earlier that day. Even though the hood was up, it was quite obvious that there was still a sullen look on their soft features. Klaus started to mutter to the man next to him, "I'm craving eggs. No! Wait, it's too late for eggs. Waffles. Huh? You like waffles, right?" The man nodded his head which caused Klaus to brighten, "ah. Of course, you do. Everyone likes waffles."

The radio on the car's hood then crackled to life, "gunshots reported on the 400 block of Milton Avenue, Griddy's Doughnuts."

At the statement, Diego took one more look at the waves before heading over to his car. Klaus perked up as he saw his brother approach, "Diego, thank you for joining us, we have decided on, drum roll, waffles."

He shook his head and started his car, "I'm gonna drop you off at the bus stop. I gotta get back to work."

Klaus' expression slacked in slight disappointment, "what?" He breathed out, "breaking bones and cracking skulls?"

Diego smirked and looked at Klaus through the rearview mirror after putting on his domino mask, "saving lives, baby."

He turned back to the steering wheel when he heard a sigh from behind him, "well, I guess it's frozen waffles again." It sounded like Klaus was talking to someone. Diego took one more glance behind him to see what Klaus was doing only to see him talking to thin air. "Yeah, I could do egg and bacon, but I'm trying to cut down on my pig products." Diego rolled his eyes and started to drive the car away from the water's edge and in the direction to drop Klaus off somewhere relatively safe.

* * *

Jemma slowly walked down one of the many winding hallways of her childhood home. She decided to stay the night and not go back to her apartment in order to cope with her eventful day. Seeing her family all together again was just as nice as it was nerve-racking. After all of the excitement, she was in desperate need of a nap. She was already running through the many drinks that she had about an hour ago and was slowly becoming sober. She knew that her mind would become completely clear by the time she actually goes to sleep. Which meant that she would need some more. It was a good thing that she had grabbed a large bottle of whiskey from the kitchen cabinet and brought it with her. In order to sleep, she needed alcohol. Sleep always eluded her for some reason. Jemma hypothesized that it was because of her superspeed causing her thoughts to race around in her mind and keeping her awake at night. It just gave her another excuse to drink more.

As the blonde was nearing the flight of stairs where her bedroom was, she was able to hear the unmistakable sound of a cane clicking against the floor. She turned to find Pogo trotting over to her. The old ape smiled at the woman and started up a conversation with her. "Hello, Miss Jemma. I'm glad to see you're better." He noticed that her pale face was less flush than before and she seemed to be sober. Pogo was more than happy to see the woman act normal than drinking. The ape hadn't seen Jemma in such a state like earlier and was glad to see that she was sober at the moment. However, when he took one look at the bottle in her hand, he sighed.

"Define better…" Jemma said sheepishly as she tried to hide the whiskey behind her back.

"I have a feeling that I should lock up your father's alcohol cabinet," he raised an eyebrow.

Jemma's eyes widened, "now Pogo, let's not be rash here."

Pogo stared at her unimpressed, "I wanted to make sure that you were all right. Vanya did as well after she left."

The woman puckered her lips, "I'm good. No need to worry about little old me." She spun around on her heels and started to climb the stairs, "I'm just heading to my room." A sour expression consumed her face and looked completely out of place on her. To hear that Vanya had left the house without even making sure that she was okay or saying goodbye left somewhat of a bad taste in her mouth. Though she didn't care all that much… It's not like she actually went to their apartment that much anymore. If anything she mainly spends her nights with Klaus at some motel or with a few other friends she had.

"Vanya was hoping to see you tomorrow," Pogo commented as if he could hear her thoughts.

Jemma waved her hand over her shoulder and climbed higher, "mhm, if I'm sober enough tomorrow then I just might."

Pogo could only watch as she climbed up the stairs and to her bedroom to, no doubt, drown herself further, to his dismay. "Goodnight, Miss. Jemma."

"Night!"

Jemma entered her room and placed the whiskey on her desk. She breathed out deeply while plopping herself down on her bed. Finding no motivation to really do anything, Jemma just laid back on her bed and stared at the bland ceiling over her head. Sooner or later the whiskey was going to become too tempting for her and she would easily down the whole thing. That seemed like it was going to be sooner due to the fact that the picture of Ben was staring straight at her.

* * *

Vanya had finally gotten to her apartment building. The taxi ride of silent and cold. She wasn't completely sure but seeing her family all together again and how much they loathe her dampened her spirits quite a lot. She knew that they were going to dislike her and express it openly, however, it was different thinking about the interactions than actually living through them. There was also the fact that Five had magically appeared in their home. After seventeen years, her brother had come back home looking just like he did when he had ran away!

She also had to add in the situation with Jemma. Though it wasn't just a situation anymore, seeing as Jemma's problem had been going on for years now. However, it seemed that the rest of the family now knew that she was an alcoholic. They all now knew how their darling, precious, innocent sister had turned into a dependant drunk who jumped at any chance to get drunk. Vanya also had a feeling that they all knew why Jemma was like this…

Vanya should have waited for Jemma instead of making a beeline out of the house. She should have taken Jemma home with her like she usually did. However, she was certain that Jemma wouldn't be completely irresponsible and try to travel to their shared apartment on her own. Jemma had enough common sense when she was drunk to not make terrible decisions like traveling across the city on her own drunk. Though now that Vanya thought about it, she had practically done that this morning. So maybe Jemma had the tendency to make a bad decision every once and awhile.

Vanya arrived at her door and pulled out her keys. She walked into her dark apartment on autopilot and turned on the lights. She gasped when she caught sight of a figure sitting in her living room that nearly gave her a heart attack. "Jesus!"

"You should have locks on your windows." Five commented nonchalantly as he casually sat in his sister's apartment, uninvited.

Vanya just stared at him in utter bewilderment, "I live on the second floor."

"Rapists can climb."

"You are so weird." She sighed while closing the door and venturing further into the room. She placed her belongings down and, of course, as soon as she got closer she was able to notice the disheveled and bruised appearance of her brother, "is that blood?"

Five turned his head and denied it, "it's nothing."

She stared at him with wide eyes. Even though they hadn't seen each other in such a long time, Five didn't seem to trust her like he did when they were younger. It was slightly saddening for her, but she let it go. Seeing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him, she just got comfortable on the couch near him. "Why are you here?"

Five mulled over his thoughts for a moment to look for the right words. Soon enough, he found his voice, "I've decided you're the only one I can trust."

Vanya's eyebrows furrowed, "why me?"

"Because you're ordinary." There was silence for a moment before he sighed, "because you'll listen."

"Okay." Vanya got up and went to her bathroom and gathered some supplies in order to clean up the wound on her brother's arm. Ever since she was little she had known how to use a first aid kit and such. That skill usually came with having superheroes as siblings.

As Vanya started to clean up Five's arm, the young looking boy tried to straighten out his thoughts and where he would begin, "when I jumped forward and got stuck in the future, do you know what I found?"

"No."

"Nothing." He instantly answered as he stared off into space. The memory of first arriving in the future filtered through his mind from all those years ago. "Absolutely nothing. As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive." Vanya could only gape at him silently as he continued on, "I never figured out what killed the human race, but I did find something else. The date it happens. The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it."

Vanya stared at him in disbelief and shock before speaking softly, "I'll put on a pot of coffee."


	4. Run Boy Run

** _17 YEARS AGO_ **

** _AS USUAL, GRACE PREPARED LUNCH LIKE SHE _ ** _did every other normal afternoon for the eight children in the large home and their father. She placed nine plates of hot food at the long mahogany table and moved over to the record player in the back of the room. She placed a familiar record onto it and moved the needle into place. "During extreme weather conditions, a climber must possess the wisdom to determine," the recording started as Grace picked up a small bell. Her blue and white dress swayed back and forth as she raised a delicate hand and rang the bell, "when evacuation is inevitable."_

_There was a sudden rush of wind that caused the android's hair to move wildly. "Jemma," Grace scolded lightly as she fixed her hair back into its neat bun. "You know not to use your superspeed unless it's for training."_

_The blonde who had suddenly smiled sheepishly and bowed her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, mom."_

_Grace only smiled at the girl in fondness, "it's all right, dear. Now, go wait for the others," she gestured to the table decorated with plates of warm food. Jemma smiled brightly, walked over to the table and stood behind one of the seats to wait patiently._

_More footsteps emanated from the staircase as the rest of the family came bounding down for lunch. The children all walked in first and stood behind a seat just like Jemma had. Vanya stood at one end of the table with the rest of the children occupying the seats on the side as the chair opposite her was left vacant for a moment. Diego stood on the left side of the table between Five, who was closest to Vanya, and Luther on either side of him. Allison stood across from Luther with Klaus next to her then Ben and then Jemma. Each child waited a moment longer for their father to finally arrive for mealtime._

_Reginald Hargreeves finally came down after his adopted children and stood behind the last chair that was at the head of the table. "Sit," he gestured to the chairs and allowed the children to sit._

_Everyone at the table dug into their food for the day in silence. All the while, Luther and Allison kept stealing glances at each other, Diego was carving into the arm of his chair, Klaus was rolling a joint, Jemma was sharing small smiles with Ben as they read a book together and Vanya ate her lunch with eyes downcasted. Everyone seemed to be content with the current situation. Meals were always meant to be in complete silence. It seemed ridiculous, however, no one would argue with their father about his rules. So they all had to just be content with those rules and follow them lest they had to deal with their father's scolding. Though one of the children seemed to be less than happy during the meal._

_Number Five hadn't even touched his food let alone started eating. His jaw was clenched as he stared at Reginald at the head of the table with a glare while holding his knife with a tight grip. The tension that had been building up in him had finally snapped when he suddenly broke through the silence as he stabbed his knife into the table. Everyone's heads turned to him as they became startled._

_"Number Five?" Reginald asked._

_"I have a question," Five stated firmly._

_Reginald turned back to his food, "Knowledge is an admirable goal, but you know the rules. No talking during mealtimes. You are interrupting Herr Carlson."_

_Five pushed away his plate harshly in defiance, "I want to time travel."_

_"No."_

_"But I'm ready," The young boy stood up from his seat harshly, "I've been practicing my spacial jumps, just like you said." He demonstrated that but concentrating and using his powers to jump from his place to a spot right next to his adopted father at the head of the table. "See!"_

_"A spatial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel." The old man said as he didn't bat an eye at the boy and continued to eat his food. "One is like sliding along the ice, the other is akin to descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn."_

_Five dug his hands in his pocket and pondered that statement with a sarcastic, tight-lipped smile, "well, I don't get it."_

_"Hence the reason you're not ready."_

_The other children tried to keep themselves from intervening in the conversation. Their father was obviously growing annoyed with Five's blatant breaking of his rule and adding to that would only make matters worse. They shared glances with each other every once and a while as they continued to stuff their mouths in order to stay quiet. Vanya was the only one who tried to gain Five's attention slightly by shaking her head when he looked up in her direction. An obvious warning to making anything worse._

_Five clenched his jaw in frustration, "I'm not afraid."_

_"Fear isn't the issue," Reginald stated, "the effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable." He threw down his silverware in obvious vexation, "now, I forbid you to talk about this anymore." He picked up his utensils again which signaled the end of the conversation and for Five to go back to his seat. Though it wasn't like Five was actually going to do that! The boy scrunched his face for a moment before spinning on his heels and walking out of the dining area. "Number Five! You haven't been excused. Come back here!"_

_Everyone turned to watch him storm out into the fore as they all heard the front door open and close harshly. Five was going to do something drastic, all of his siblings knew that. He was a boy who thought that he knew everything and anything when it came to life. He was a smart boy, yes. But he was also rash and acted impulsively on certain things, and completely arrogant. There was honestly no telling what he was going to do._

_Jemma gnawed on her bottom lip as the book she and Ben had been sharing was now abandoned on the table as both of them had spun in their seats to see where their brother was going. She turned her timid eyes to their father whose face had grown considerably red in anger and agitation. She started to grow slightly anxious as the milliseconds ticked by. Five had such a knack for infuriating their father which obviously caused quite a few arguments to break out._

_"Number Eight," Jemma jumped at her father's sharp voice as she allowed her wide eyes to focus on the old man._

_Her voice was timid and uncertain, "y-yes, father?"_

_"Go after Number Five and bring him back here now!"_

_She nodded her head hastily at his demand as she knew that Reginald wanted her to use her superspeed to make sure that Five didn't get too far away from the Academy. With that, she suddenly disappeared from the table in a gust of wind as she used her speed to exit the building. She ran out of the front door and stood on the sidewalk to look around. The world was in slow motion as she looked around to search for the black-haired thirteen-year-old. She just caught a glimpse of the back of his blue blazer only a short way away from her. She smiled now seeing that he hadn't gotten too far from her. She would have to convince him to come back inside and stop his rash decision before it gets to be too much and they're all punished for his defiance. Though it quickly disappeared when she saw the blue haze surrounding his body before he disappeared from her sight._

_Her blue eyes were blown wide open as panic started to settle in her stomach. He was gone. Five was gone! He had spacial jumped somewhere else. Though he couldn't have gone far, right? Number Five was quite skilled with his ability, however, she knew that he couldn't spacial jump too far away from his previous spot. He had to be somewhere close._

_With that in mind, she ran around the area in search of her brother. The wind kicked back and forth on the small street. Bystanders shivered at the wind blowing all around them and hung onto their hats to make sure that they wouldn't fall off with the harsh gusts. Unknown to them, the wind was caused by a frantic speedster who was desperately trying to look for her brother._

_After a few moments for her and only half for her family, Jemma appeared back in the dining area with her family. They all stared at the small girl as she bowed her head and stood in front of their father who was still fuming over Five's sudden outburst._

_"Where is he?" He stared down his nose and from behind his monocle at the blonde who didn't dare look up at him._

_Jemma fidgeted with her polished shoes on the floor, "h-he was outside... but..." The other children sat on the edge of their seats waiting for her to say something._

_Reginald grew frustrated with her reluctance to speak, "speak, Number Eight!"_

_The girl jumped and sniffed as her eyes slightly watered, "he was gone. He spacial jumped before I could get to him and I looked around... I couldn't find him."_

_The room was silent and still. Everyone was mulling over her statement and trying to grasp the fact that Five had seemingly run away. Reginald looked to be completely furious with that revelation. However, he stayed silent. That was never good. The adopted children watched as Reginald stood from his chair loudly and stomped out of the room, no doubt to go into his study. The other children knew not to bother their father for the rest of the day now and probably for the rest of the week._

_As the children watched him walk off, Five was stuck in the future. Seventeen years to be exact. He sat on his knees in desperation as he called out the names of his family through the rubble of his dismantled home that was now decorated in flames and ash. The young boy was powerless as he was unable to use his ability to undo his grave mistake. He had time-traveled to the end of mankind, the apocalypse._

* * *

"I survived on scraps," Five told Vanya as he held a cup of coffee in his hands. The two of them sat in her living room as the sun finally disappeared behind the city skyline. "Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find." He chuckled, "you know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well, it's total bullshit."

"I can't even imagine," Vanya said softly.

Five shook his head as he reminisced in the first few years he arrived in the future. "You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."

"We?" Vanya asked with furrowed eyebrows. He had mentioned a 'Delores' back at the house. She could only suspect that she was the other person who he was referring to.

Five disregarded the question and instead held up his now empty cup, "you got anything stronger?" His ordinary sister nodded her head as she stood up from her couch and walked over to her small kitchen. She pulled out a glass of liquor and poured it into a cup to give to Five. With Five nursing said cup and gulping down the burning yet satisfying liquid, Vanya watched her once missing brother in disbelief. Five looked up and scoffed at her look, "you think I'm crazy."

"No." Vanya denied with a deep breath, "It's just it's a lot to take in."

"Exactly what don't you understand?"

"Why didn't you just time travel back?"

Five huffed as he was slowly growing agitated with Vanya's inability to understand the situation. "Gee, wish I'd thought of that." He snapped, "time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?"

Vanya pondered his words as so many questions popped up in her mind, "if you grew old there, you know, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid?"

"I told you already." Five stressed as he moved to pour himself more alcohol. "I must have got the equations wrong."

The ordinary woman licked her lips, "I mean, Dad always used to say that... time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?" She said hopefully.

It appeared that Fie mulled over her words only for a moment before shaking his head with a scoff. "This was a mistake." He made a move to walk around her and towards the front door, "you're too young - too naive to understand."

"No. Five, Five, wait," Vanya said desperately. She couldn't let him walk out and disappear once again as he did so long ago. She couldn't stop him then, perhaps she could stop him now. "I haven't seen you in a long time, and I don't want to lose you again. That's all." Five tensed up at that and didn't move. "And you know what, it's getting late, and I have lessons early, and I need to sleep, and I'm sure you do, too." She moved over to the couch and made up the couch for him to sleep on, "here. We'll talk in the morning again. Okay? I ."

Five stuffed his hands in his pocket as Vanya moved to her own bedroom. He sighed inwardly, "night."

Vanya entered her bedroom and closed the door where she leaned her back against it to collect herself. The day had certainly been quite eventful. She walked over to her bed to start getting ready where she grabbed her pill bottle and took a dose as she started to grow anxious.

In the living space, Five sat on the couch and held a brown cloth in his hands. He opened it up to reveal a prosthetic, glass eye that he had had with him for a very long time. The iris was brown and on the back were the words 'Meritech' with a serial number under it. He battled internally with himself for a long moment before making a firm decision. He quickly stood up and opened the door to the apartment as quietly as he could to not alert Vanya of his departure. His mission was far more important than finishing up his reunion with one of his siblings. Yes, it would be nice to do so, however, there were far more pressing matters.

* * *

Night rolled around really quickly and the sky became pitch black. There was no twinkling stars insight in the vast abyss of space for tonight. Neon lights illuminated off of the slightly damp ground of a motel parking lot that seemed vacant. A city taxi came rolling up to the main office of the motel.

The door slid open and a man with a large build climbed out of the taxi. He held a black briefcase in his hand and wore a dark blue suit and tie with a scruffy beard. Next, a woman climbed out of the car behind him wearing the same exact thing as him. She was African- American with chocolate hair that reached just before her shoulders and a harsh gaze that could scare anyone. The two of them walked into the office of the dingy motel to check into the room that had been booked for them.

"Reservation for Hazel and Cha-Cha." The woman, Cha-Cha, said to the worker who sat behind the counter with his feet up.

The man stared at them weirdly for a moment before getting up and looking for their room key. All the while he kept stealing glances at the pair in front of him. "Here you go." The receptionist said as he placed a room key on the counter, "room 225."

The two stared at the key for a moment before Cha-Cha spoke the question both thought. "What about the other room?"

"Uh, Only one room was booked."

Hazel and Cha-Cha both hissed at that, "Dammit." Hazel huffed, "I'm sick of this cost-cutting bullshit."

Cha-Cha sighed, "just tell me there's two beds."

"Yes, ma'am." The receptionist confirmed, "real firm. Now, how long do you think you'll be staying with us?"

"Just the one night." Cha-Cha shook her head, "I believe there's a package waiting for us."

The worker nodded his head and turned to pick up the large, rectangular cardboard box that had been left for them when the reservation had been made. He set it on the table where Cha-Cha picked it up and headed out of the door with Hazel following her. "Okay. Have a good night."

The pair entered their motel room that was on the second floor and cringed at it. It certainly was not the best place to be staying. Cha-Cha got to business by opening the box and sorting through the various weapons and tech that was in it. Hazel opted to take a look around the room and was certainly unhappy with the arrangements. "Go ahead." Cha-Cha sighed out as she could feel the frustration radiating off of her partner. "Just say it."

"What?"

"No point keeping it bottled up, or it'll just give you heartburn, and I gotta listen to you complain about that, too."

Hazel sighed loudly and walked over to the bed he assigned his own as he started to complain. "It smells like cat piss. First they cut our per diem, and then our dental, and now we don't even get our own rooms. Where does it end?"

"When we retire or die." Cha-Cha cocked the gun in her hand expertly, "whatever comes first. But at least we're not stuck in some cubicle."

"Damn wrist is killing me." Hazel muttered as he picked up the heavy case, "couldn't have made this into a backpack or something?"

Cha-Cha turned around to see her partner bending down towards an air vent in the corner of the room. She gaped at him, "what are you doing?"

He unscrewed the vent screws and opened it up. Hazel placed the large case into the vent as he thought that it was the safest place for it. "It's not like we're gonna use it while we're doing the job, anyway."

Cha-Cha continued on with, "it's against protocol. We gotta have it with us at all times."

Hazel scoffed and stood up once he finished, "a rule written by a bureaucrat who never had to carry one. They can shove their protocol up their asses. Let them try lugging around the damn thing." He walked over to his bed and grabbed some quarters out of his pocket. He placed the quarters into the massager that was in the bed and flopped down on it once it started to vibrate. He sighed in content at the relaxing feeling that it was bringing him. Work as an assassin certainly was tough!

His partner picked up a photo of a man with gray hair and a matching mustache. "Never been after one of our own before." She stared at the photo of Number Five for a moment, "they say what happened to the first guys?"

"Liquidated," Hazel answered as his voice was distorted due to the vibrations.

Cha-Cha shook her head, "dummy local hires. You get what you pay for." She picked up a rectangular box which was obviously a tracker. She turned it on and it started to let out a soft beeping noise. "Okay, now, where's our guy?"

* * *

Police sirens, flashing blue and red lights, and detectives consumed the scene that had developed at Griddy's Donuts. There was a gruesome sight in the diner which was the aftermath of Five's fight. He had killed all five of the assassins expertly and efficiently. He made it look like childsplay, which is quite scary.

Officers roamed around every inch of the room looking for clues on how exactly all of their victims had been killed. "This is a once in a blue moon type of situation, I'd say." Detective Eudora Patch, a woman with brown hair, said as she walked around the diner to look at everything. Her keen eyes surveyed everything, just like her partner, Detective Chuck Beaman.

"I'm inclined to agree," Chuck said.

Eudora started to rattle off what they already knew, "same gun on every vic, all in fours. All the casings are .223s. Know what I think? I think these idiots all shot each other."

Chuck chuckled softly at that and pointed out, "and stabbed. One in the throat, one in the eye, and this guy got his neck snapped. All quick and efficient kills."

She nodded her head as they bent down to examine one of the dead men. "These guys were definitely professionals. Dumb, but professionals." They stood up, "any witnesses?"

"Yes." Chuck confirmed and motioned over to the woman in pink who sat in a corner booth. "One. It happened during her shift."

Eudora sighed, "well, that's lousy luck." She approached the older woman carefully. She already knew that the woman had gone through a lot of trauma tonight, she really didn't want to cause any more discomfort for her. But she still needed to get all of the evidence she could. "Ma'am, I'm Detective Patch."

The employee nodded her head, "hi, Agnes. Agnes Rofa. Oh, I don't know, did you want a last name?"

Eudora smiled softly as she took a seat across from the witness, "I'll take it if you'll give it. Did you see what happened here?"

Agnes shook her head, "No, not exactly."

"Let's start at the top."

"Well, it was- it was a slow night." Agnes started to retell how her night went, "it was quiet. My last two customers were this older guy and- and his kid. The guy had a dough- No, that's not right. The guy had an éclair, and the kid had- had coffee. I went- I went into the back room um, to just get some more change. But then I heard his truck start up. They drove away. I heard shots. And by the time I got back in here... everyone was- was, you know..." she started to get choked up as she looked around the room at the dead bodies.

"Was there anyone else in the shop?"

"No, I- I don't think so." Eudora nodded, "I'm sorry, not to be rude, 'cause you seem super sweet, but do I have to go through all this again?"

"Again?"

Agnes nodded her head shakily, "well, I already told the other detective everything."

The detective's eyes narrowed, "what other detective?"

Diego busted out of the back door of the diner after interviewing the waitress. Is what he doing technically illegal? Yes. But did he care? No, not really. He wanted to be involved and get all of the information he needed on the crime.

However, that was interrupted when Diego came face to face with a familiar, angry detective. "Shit." Diego swore as he raised a hand to stop the frustrated woman in front of him, "hang on, let me-" he was then tasered by said woman and fell to the ground.

"You don't talk to my witnesses, understand?" Eudora said as she hauled Diego away with handcuffs restricting him.

Diego smirked, "let me catch you up to speed, Eudora."

"Don't call me that!" She growled.

Diego nodded his head sarcastically, "right, Detective Patch. What, are we gonna keep things professional?"

"I don't know if we ever agreed on much." Eudora scoffed at him and his seeming inability to respect authority.

"We agreed on some things."

"Did we really, though?" She pulled out a radio from his coat pocket, "I'm confiscating this."

He sniffed at her, "military surplus, practically giving them away."

She then pulled out a badge from his other coat pocket, "and this."

"No skin, super cheap, bought it on eBay." Diego shrugged at her. I did really matter that she was confiscating his stuff, he could always get new ones.

She then went inside his coat and pulled out his domino mask. She raised an eyebrow at him and threw it back into his coat, "that you can keep."

Diego's lips pursed, "you used to like that."

Eudora huffed, "not anymore."

He continued to speak while she dragged him in the direction of a police cruiser. "By the way, this thing might look like a botched robbery, but my gut's telling me something else is going on here. Look, the waitress, she mentioned that Ishmael's Tow Truck guy." Eudora paused as he spoke and allowed him to turn to her, "maybe they saw something."

"You're not police, Diego," she pointed out to him, "remember?"

"Yeah." Diego bit out, "I know."

Eudora raised a delicate eyebrow at him as he sat in the cruiser, "do you? Because you show up and act like you can be a part of this, and you can't, not anymore."

Diego shook his head and looked up at her from inside the car, "I'm good at this. You know I can help you."

Eudora's jaw clenched slightly in frustration, "I know you give me agita. And I do not need I do not want your help. Okay?" She sighed loudly and banged the top of the car before walking away to finish conducting the investigation. She looked up to the sky, "Lord, you test me."

As she walked past the crowd of curious onlookers to head back inside the diner, she walked past the two assassin's who were looking for the one who killed all of those men. They really didn't expect to run into a problem like this. Not only didn't they find their target but they also couldn't investigate what had happened due to the police. They would just have to spend a little bit more time looking for Number Five.

* * *

The annoying sound of an alarm clock met Luther's ears as he woke up from his sleep. The clock read '9:18' which meant that he should probably get up. He climbed out of his bed, accidentally hit his head on the airplane hanging from the ceiling and pulled on his large green jacked. He walked out of his room and found himself standing in the hallway of his childhood home. "Shit." He completely forgot that he was even home! A floorboard then creaked behind which brought him out of his mind. He turned around to see Allison packing up her things. He walked over to the door and knocked on it, "Hi."

"Hey." Allison greeted him softly as she continued to pack up her clothes.

Luther chuckled, "You know, it's funny. I've had the same routine for the last four years. Now that I'm back down here, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself."

Allison nodded her head in understanding, "I know the feeling."

Luther hummed and observed her as she worked to put her stuff in her suitcase, "well, you must be eager to see Claire, huh?" He really didn't want to have to say goodbye to her so soon, but she had other obligations to get to. Her daughter certainly was more important than her brother.

Allison smiled slightly, "I didn't think it was possible to miss a person this much." Her smile then slipped off of her face, "but I've got some things I need to do before I can see her. You know, someday I'd really love for you to meet her."

"Me?" Luther's eyebrows furrowed.

She looked up at him with a smile once again, "yeah, you. Why not?"

"Well, does Claire even know about me?"

Allison scoffed at him, "What are you talking about? Of course she knows about you." Like she would not tell her own daughter about her family, especially Luther.

"I know, it's just that," he sighed, "when you left, it seemed like all you wanted to do was forget this place ever existed, so-"

The actress cut him off, "this place, yes. But not you. When Claire was little, I used to read her books about the moon. I'd tell her her uncle was living up there. That he was protecting us from harm."

Luther smiled at that, "really?"

"I mean, you were her own personal superhero. You know, after all this time, I know she would love to meet you."

The idea sounded nice, yes. But there was a nagging feeling in the back of Luther's mind that he couldn't shake. "Uh, Dad's monocle is still missing, so I can't just forget about that."

Allison sighed loudly, "Dad died because his heart gave out, Luther. Don't turn his death into a mission."

He stared at her for a moment as he registered her words, "is that what you think this is?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "I think there's a reason why you never left." Luther continued to stare at her with wide eyes that were filled to the brim with disbelief. Allison opened her mouth to say something more but couldn't think of anything. So instead she exited her bedroom. Luther stood there rigidly as Allison walked away. He stared off into space before taking a sip of the pouch that he had in his hand.

Allison was just walking past the staircase that leads upstairs to the other few bedrooms on the upper floor when some footsteps alerted her to someone coming down those stairs. She turned to see her blonde sister walking down the stairs sluggishly. She couldn't tell if Jemma was just tired, hungover, drunk, or maybe a combination of the three.

"Hey, Jem," Allison said as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs to wait for her sister.

Jemma smiled at the curly-haired women, "Ally, hi!" She finally stepped off of the stairs and came to stand in front of Allison who was a few inches taller than her. She let out a long breath, "yesterday was pretty chaotic, right?"

Allison nodded her head in agreement, "that's a bit of an understatement." The two of them laughed with each other slightly. They were then surrounded by an awkward silence, and Jemma was pretty sure why. From the look on Allison's face, she could tell that there was a burning question on Allison's mind.

Jemma cleared her throat awkwardly, "I'm sorry about yesterday, I kind of didn't want you guys to see me like that. I-I, uh, did my best to try and stay sober." She let out a breathy laugh, "honestly, I think that yesterday was the longest that I've gone without a drink."

"...but you were drinking yesterday..." Allison pointed out.

The blonde nodded her head, "Well, yeah, I know. But what I mean is that I spent about four hours completely sober." She stared off into space, "which made me realize exactly why I like to keep myself drunk."

"I never would have pegged you as a drinker," Allison said. It was true! Jemma was one of the most innocent people that Allison has ever known. She never swore, rarely ever talked back, and was so soft-spoken that Allison was certain a mouse would be louder than her. Jemma never touched any sort of drug while they were teens even when Klaus offered her them. Yet now, Allison could tell that she most likely took Klaus up on that offer further down the road, mainly for alcohol, based off of what she saw yesterday.

Jemma grimaced and stared at the floor. She grew timid under her sister's stare and could tell that Allison would most likely judge her for anything she said. "Yeah, neither did I..." She bit her bottom lip anxiously.

Allison took a deep breath, "well, you're sober now, right? Maybe you could try to stay sober all day?" She at least hoped that Jemma would agree to that. She didn't like seeing her like that yesterday. Yeah, Jemma seemed to be an amusing drunk, but even then, Allison didn't like to think that her smaller, innocent sister would do such things. Allison can handle Klaus being a druggie, Vanya's betrayal, Luther's loyalty, and Five's reappearance, but not Jemma's alcoholism. She didn't want the only thing that seemed to be bright in their childhood to be hindered by something like alcohol.

Jemma kept her gaze downward, "to be honest, I was on my way downstairs to make breakfast... and get a drink or two."

Allison shook her head, "Jemma."

"I know, Ally. I just can't handle being here." Allison could tell that Jemma was already starting to tremble slightly, especially when her hands started to shake. The memories of their childhood were just too much for her, it seemed. Allison could understand.

She nodded her head, "I get it, Jemma. But I don't think drinking would really help you."

"You think," Jemma sniffed at her as her eyes turned up to Allison's brown ones and narrowed slightly. "I know it may not be good and that the way that I drink would kill any normal person, but I don't care. I use it to forget, and it gets the job done." Jemma tilted her head which caused her short blonde hair to obscure her bright blue eyes. "Now, if you want, you can come with me for breakfast. Otherwise, I'll be in the kitchen." Jemma stared at Allison for a moment longer before brushing past her on her way to the kitchen. Allison let her go. Obviously, Jemma had changed, and she didn't even know it.

She and Jemma had kept in contact mainly because Jemma didn't want to lose it in the first place. Allison should have been a better sister in that regard. But even when they did speak with each other or see each other, Jemma hid the alcoholic side of her so well! Allison never suspected there was anything remotely wrong with the blonde woman. Though Allison wasn't really looking for anything wrong in her, as Allison always thought that Jemma was so perfect and uncorrupted unlike the rest of them. However, as she watched the blonde disappear down the stairs, Allison could tell that she was just as damaged as the rest of them.

* * *

"No, no," Klaus whimpers in his sleep as a cluster of voices swarmed around him and called out his name. He was obviously having a nightmare. It was terrible to think that his powers and father were the ones to cause him such vivid and terrible nightmares. He continued to whimper for a few seconds later before he sat up suddenly while panting heavily.

"You know you talk in your sleep?" Ben asked as he glanced up from the familiar book that he was reading. Klaus sat for a minute trying to collect his breath after such a terrible dream before he stumbled off of the couch and towards his clothes that were thrown on the ground carelessly from the night before. That would explain the reason that Klaus had woken up in nothing but a pair of colorful, cheetah print underwear. "There's no point, you're out of drugs." Ben commented as Klaus continued to just look for the drugs that he had bought the other day. After a nightmare like that, he was in desperate need of a high.

"Shut your piehole, Ben." He grumbled before looking up at his dead brother, "said with love." He then blew a kiss at Ben who only rolled his eyes at Klaus' actions. Yet it was nothing new or out of the ordinary for the druggie.

Ben sighed and leaned forward on his knees, "I've got a crazy idea. Why not try starting your day with... a glass of orange juice or some eggs?"

Klaus pulled out a blunt and started to light it as he spoke around it while it was in his mouth, "can't smoke eggs." He slid around the living room and started his search through the many cabinets that held many expensive looking things in them. Ben didn't say anything as he knew that there was nothing that he could say that would stop Klaus. "One of these has gotta be gold-plated, right?" Just as he opened up on of the cabinets doors and started to look through it, someone clears their throat behind him. Klaus jumped and spun around to come face to face with Pogo. "Christ on a cracker! Pogo?"

"My apologies, Master Klaus." The ape didn't seem to be completely apologetic. "I have a query for you."

"Oh?"

"Items from your father's office have gone missing. In particular, an ornate box with pearl inlay."

Ben turned around from his seat on the loveseat and faced Klaus, "Really?"

Klaus ignored him and focused on Pogo, "Really? You don't say."

"Any idea where it went?"

Klaus' mind instantly wandered to the day before after he had taken the exact box that Pogo was looking for out of the house. He had opened up the box and threw out the stuff that was inside of it. He didn't think that it was any value, honestly. It was the box itself that he wanted. Then he went to a pawn shop where he got a nice stack of cash that was used to buy himself a nice bag of good old drugs for him. He then used them and crashed on the couch that night. It was such a good high.

"No, no, no." Klaus lied through his teeth, "no idea. Sorry.

"Liar." Ben scoffed.

Klaus instantly replied with a whisper of; "Drop dead."

Ben turned around amused and not really offended by his words, "low blow."

"Would you shut up!"

"Excuse me?" Pogo, unknowingly, cut in between the brother's bickering as he thought that Klaus was telling him to shut up.

"Pogo, I didn't mean you," Klaus walked around the couch and towards Pogo, "I just, I- You know, there's been a lot of stuff I've been dealing with. Just a lot of memories coming up. All those good times. Well, not so much good times as really awful, terrible, depressing times."

Pogo just stared at him unamused, "the contents of that box are... priceless. Were they to find their way back to the office, whoever took it would be absolved of any blame or consequences."

"Oh, well, lucky bastard." Klaus just took another drag of his blunt to hopefully hide his

Pogo clicked his tongue as he obviously knew that Klaus had something to do with the box's disappearance, "indeed."

"What did Klaus steal this time?" Jemma asked as she came into the living room to stand beside Pogo.

Klaus' eyes widened at her appearance as she was there when he had taken the box. "Nothing, at all. I'm offended that you even think that I would do such a thing."

Jemma pursed her lips before rolling her eyes, "yeah, 'cause it's not like you stole some cash from me to buy yourself some drugs a few weeks ago."

"I thought we both agreed that you forgave me for that!" Klaus asked her scandalously.

The blonde nodded her head, "we did. Still doesn't dismiss the fact that you stole some money, but that doesn't matter." She turned on her heels, "I'm thinking of making breakfast if you want some you guys can come downstairs."

"If you're making waffles, I'll definitely have some!" Jemma nodded her head at him as she headed downstairs to the kitchen. Klaus just couldn't help himself, his sister really knew how to make a mean waffle. They rivaled the ones Mom always made them when they were kids. As he reveled in the idea of eating Jemma's wonderful waffles, he turned around to Ben only to see that his brother had completely abandoned his book. His undivided attention was drawn to Jemma as she walked away. God, the look on his face just about made Klaus want to barf. However, there was also a part of him that felt terrible for him. He couldn't imagine having to sit around and watching the world go by as it doesn't even notice him. Life could be so cruel. Waffles could definitely make it better, however!


	5. Helping the Old Man

**MORNING ROLLED AROUND QUICKLY AND CAUSED THE **city to be doused in the sun's bright light. People were finally getting up to start their day in the city as glumly as the day they had before. Daylight filtered through windows and woke up Vanya from her small, old bed. She sighed and sat up from her bed. She quickly removed her duvet once she remembered the fact that her long lost brother had shown up at her apartment last night. The woman climbed out of her bed and opened the door that led from her bedroom to the main room.

"Hey, Five," Vanya called as she exited her room and walked into the living room. She expected to see her brother sitting on the couch just like she left him the night before. However, her eyes widened as the young-looking boy was not there and the blankets that she had left out were untouched. Five had left, just like he had years ago. "Oh, shit." She rushed over to her phone that she left on the counter and quickly used speed dial to call someone that could help her find her brother.

The dial tone rang through her ears for a few moments until finally, someone picked up. "_Hello?_" A soft voice grunted from the other side.

"Jemma. I need your help."

Vanya could hear the sound of pans and plates moving around which probably meant that Jemma had been making herself breakfast. "_With what?_"

"Five left the apartment last night," she ran a hand through her brown hair, "I-I don't know where he is, but I think that he may have gone back to the Academy."

"_That's a bit concerning,_" she heard the blonde hum on the other end of the call, "_don't worry I'll keep an eye out for the old geezer, V._"

"Thank you," Vanya sighed out. She is all too aware of how Jemma can be forgetful and unreliable for many things, especially when she was on a drinking binge. However, she figured that since it was something as serious as this she would help her. Five went missing once, they certainly didn't want him to go missing again.

"_No problem,_" her sister said softly. The fact that Vanya could hear her voice clearly and that it wasn't shaky in any way, she knew that her sister wasn't drinking yet. No matter what time of day, Jemma always found an excuse to drink, Vanya was all too aware of that. However, assuming that she hadn't actually drunk anything yet was an optimistic idea. Vanya honestly could only go see for herself. She could kill two birds with one stone today. One: see if she can find Five and two; use this as a way to try and keep her closest sister from drinking any alcohol today.

"I'm going to come over, to help you search."

"_Alright!_" Jemma chirped, "_don't eat breakfast there. I just made a bunch of waffles._"

Vanya smiled at the animation in her words. She laughed lightly and walked back into her bedroom to get ready. "Yeah, okay."

"_Hey! Stop that, those are for Vanya!_" She heard a commotion on the other end of the call as Jemma was scolding someone, "_You better hurry up, or Klaus is going to eat all of them._"

"I will." Vanya lightly chuckled at her siblings' antics. "See you."

"_Bye!_"

Vanya hung up the phone and made her way back into her bedroom to get ready and dressed to head to the academy. She was ready to search for her brother and apologize to him about last night. She thought that she had been too rash during their conversation. The topic was one that Vanya was unable to comprehend completely, and she thought that she may have pushed Five too far. She most certainly didn't want to be the reason that Five left this time.

* * *

Elsewhere, further downtown, Five stood in an office that overlooked most of the city with its towering buildings. It was completely white and looked very professional which is expected because it was a doctor's office. It was Meritech, to be exact, a company that specializes in prosthetic limbs. He stared around the room while subconsciously rolling a prosthetic eye in his hand.

As Five was waiting, a middle-aged doctor came walking into the lobby. The man looked to be a basic, normal boring doctor that people picture when they think of a doctor, to be honest. His eyebrows furrowed, "uh, can I help you?"

Five turned to the man and walked over to him while raising the prosthetic eye for the doctor to see, "I need to know who this belongs to."

"Where did you get that?"

The superpowered kid stared at the man, "what do you care?" He realized that that probably wasn't the best response to his question from the way that the doctor and the receptionist raised their eyebrows. He came up with a cover story, "I found it at a playground, actually. Uh, must have just," he clicked his tongue, "popped out. I wanna return it to its rightful owner."

"Oh," the receptionist gushed, "what a thoughtful young man."

Five flashed her a sarcastic smile, "yeah. Look up the name for me, will ya?"

The doctor and receptionist shared a glance with each other. "Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential." He stared down at the young-looking man with a tight smile, "that means I can't tell you-"

He rolled his eyes, "yeah, I know what it means."

"But I'll tell you what I can do. I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just-" he reached for the eye from Five who just put his hands deep into his pockets.

"Yeah, you're not touching this eye." The glare that settled on his face was unsettling. The doctor was certain that he had never seen a child so intimidating before.

He squared his shoulders and said in an authoritarian voice, "now, you listen here young man-" He couldn't react when Five launched himself at him and grabbed his collar.

Five gritted his teeth in frustration, "no! You listen to me, asshole. I've come a long way for this, through some shit your pea brain couldn't even comprehend," the doctor was slowly becoming truly frightened by the boy, "so just give me the information I need, and I'll be on my merry way. And if you call me 'young man' one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall."

The receptionist stared in concern, "oh, dear."

"Call security," the doctor choked out.

The woman nodded her head and picked up the phone to do just that. "Yeah."

The boy scowled at them and gritted his teeth in frustration and roughly let go of the taller man. With the glare still painted on his face, he sent a fierce look at the doctor before spinning on his heels for the exit. He was going to have to come up with some way to get the information that he needed. Perhaps heading to the academy to find some help would be beneficial. Though as soon as that thought filtered through his mind, he instantly thought of his normal sister.

Did he feel guilty about leaving Vanya's apartment without saying anything? Yeah, a little. He could tell that Vanya wanted nothing more than for him to stay and all of them be one big happy family again. However, he knew that that idea was nothing but a fantasy. He couldn't really tell if Vanya thought that too, but he didn't care all that much. Yes, he missed his family quite a lot but there were more important things to worry about. If he didn't finish with his mission then he wouldn't have a family to properly reconcile with. The quicker he got done with stopping the end of the world, the quicker he could finally settle down and relax with his family.

* * *

The police precinct was bustling as it usually was every day. Officers were walking in and out with criminals attached to their sides in handcuffs while detectives spoke with each other about ongoing cases. One of the detectives, Eudora Patch, sat at her desk and shuffled through some files and papers on a recent case.

"Ballistics came back," Her partner, Chuck, came walking over with an evidence bag in his hands. "Bullets from all our shooters match."

Eudora glanced at him, "round-robin."

"Yeah, to quote a very smart woman, 'These idiots all shot each other.'" The two of them chuckled a little bit before Chuck continued on with his explanation, "uh, we also got IDs on all the deceased gentlemen. Not so gentle, as it turns out."

"Criminal records?" Eudora wasn't so surprised by the news.

Chuck nodded his head, "all of them. Battery, assault, a few dishonorable discharges. They're all hotheads. One and all."

The female detective nodded her head now that she knew the case was open and shut so easily, "well, that settles that."

"Well," the man continued, "there is just one thing. Remember the victim that got stabbed in the carotid artery?" Chuck handed Eudora the evidence bag with the bloody knife inside of it.

"Yeah," she examined the knife as she continued to speak, "one of the guys stabbed the other. What's the problem?"

"Fingerprints on the knife don't match our guys." Chuck explained as some excitement started to bleed into his voice, "but it gets weirder. It did match an unsolved cold case that came back, circa, get this… 1939."

Eudora just about scoffed at the absurdity of the statement. Someone over the age of sixty had killed at least one of those men in the diner the other night, no way. "Tell them to run it again. We'll pick this up later." An officer then approached the detective's desk and lead a handcuffed Diego in her direction. She nodded her head at the superpowered adult, "uncuff him."

Diego smirked at the officer who was taking off his restraints, "thanks, Rodriguez." He then turned his confident smirk towards the woman behind the desk he was now sitting next to. Though he only received a roll of her eyes, "so did you talk to the tow truck guy?"

"Shut up and listen carefully," she snapped and glared at him with narrowed eyes. "The next time you interfere in one of my investigations, you so much as breathe on one of my witnesses, or touch a piece of evidence, I'll charge you with obstruction of justice. You will do jail time. That clear?"

Diego scoffed in amusement, "damn. You need to relax, Eudora. All this bureaucracy is get-"

The detective gritted her teeth in frustration, "don't call me that."

"Look, I know you." He leaned on her elbows to get closer to Eudora and with a low voice he continued, "you like playing by the rules, but you live for putting the scumbags away. So why don't you put that badge down for one night and you come out on the streets with me? Without all this bullshit." He thought that the idea was perfect. He could vividly remember a time when he and Eudora- Detective Patch were very, very close with each other. She didn't completely agree with his nightly activities, but she believed that it was okay. That was until one day she changed her mind and thought that he was really only being childish. He didn't understand that at all! What's childish about beating the shit out of some criminals?

Her soft facial features twisted into an unamused sneer. "You're right, that sounds super fun." She had gotten used to Diego's actions in the past, however, now she was beyond annoyed with his antics. Not only was it just annoying to her, but it was also illegal. "But I think you missed some things when you got yourself thrown out of the police academy, so let me explain." Diego clenched his jaw, "this bullshit is what gets convictions in a court of law. What you do out there is a fantasy. I would love to play cops and robbers, wear a mask, and feel important, but guess what? Recess is over. It's grown-up time. You're still trying to prove that, when you were kids, running around in those stupid uniforms, that it wasn't for nothing." The two of them stared at one another for a moment as Diego absorbed her words and Eudora pinned him with a knowing stare. "Yeah, I know you, too, Diego." She waved her hand dismissively and looked back down at her paperwork to appear uninterested. "Now leave, before I change my mind."

Her words stung him as he stared at her with a neutral expression. He tried to keep himself from expressing that her words had hurt him in some way and just bit the inside of his cheek. She was right, she could see right through him. However, it wasn't like he was going to let his facade fall to show how vulnerable he was at that moment. He instead stood up and leaned down to say one last thing to her only to have her hand in his face. Diego just sighed through his nose and turned to leave the precinct. Eudora then looked up and watched him go as she rubbed her rabbit foot in what appeared to be anxiety.

* * *

The large, bulky figure of Luther Hargreeves came bumbling through the doors of a local gym in the city. People were already starting their day with vigorous workouts and boxing training. People grunted and groaned as they were punched and kick. Two fighters were currently sparing in the boxing ring as an old trainer shouted at them, "focus. Yeah. Break. Break. Move your feet."

"Excuse me," Luther called out to the older man in the ring who, Luther thought, appeared to be the owner of the building.

The man turned to him and gaped at Luther's large stature, "you're looking to box? 'Cause I may need fighters, too."

Luther shook his head, "oh, no, I'm looking for information on one of the guys that uses your gym. Diego Hargreeves?"

Al just scowled slightly at him and leaned against the ropes of the ring, "well, if you see him, you can tell him I'm this far from firing his ass."

"He works here?" The surprise in Luther's voice didn't bother the old man who only waved his hand dismissively.

"Eh, he, uh, mops the floor in exchange for the back room."

Luther nodded his head, "okay. Thanks." He then turned and started to make his way towards the back room. If Diego wasn't here then that would give Luther a change to... investigate his living space. That way he would be able to find out more about his brother and if he had a hand in their father's death.

"Think about the fight game, eh?" Al called out as Luther turned around, "you got the build."

Luther walked past the many fighters and down a hallway to find the back room that Diego had taken residency. He entered the room and observed his surroundings. It was a medium-sized room, nothing compared to the mansion that they used to live in as children. But if Diego liked it then it didn't matter.

He looked at a few of Diego's things in order to find some sort of clue to his brother having any sort of involvement in their father's death. Yet he couldn't find anything. He found a knitted piece of cloth with Diego's name on it and a pair of knives. Grace, their mother, had made each of them one when they were children. If Luther remembered correctly, she made them right after they chose their names. Things were a lot simpler back when they were children, he thought.

He sighed and walked away from the frame and caught a poster in the corner of his eye. He read it quite quickly and stopped in his tracks. He seemed to have found whatever evidence that he needed.

* * *

The young, time-traveling boy waltzed into his childhood home with his hands deep in his pockets. Each of his steps was heavy and loud as it was obvious he was headed somewhere with determination. After not being able to get the information that he needed while at Meritech, Five was determined to go there once again. However, he needed some help… much to his dismay. Yet he was certain that he would find enough resources at the academy to help him. He ascended the first flights of stairs and was easily about to avoid the sight of his mother who headed into the living room. He continued up the second flight and just reached the top when he was startled slightly by a shout.

"Five, there you are!"

The boy turned around to find one of his sisters stumbling over to him. With her blonde hair slightly in her eyes and her cheeks slightly pink, Five's eyebrows furrowed at her appearance. "Jemma?"

She hiccuped slightly as she swayed on her feet. Her pale cheeks were painted a light pink as she stumbled over her own legs and nearly fell on the shorter boy as she neared him. Five stared at her in confusion and the strange behavior of his blonde sister. The sight of Jemma seemingly appearing to be drunk was baffling. He did notice yesterday that Jemma had been drinking quite a bit, however, he didn't think that his sister had the capacity to actually become drunk. Mainly due to the fact that she had an impossibly high metabolism due to her superspeed and also because he thought Jemma wouldn't even think of drinking alcohol.

She flashed him a silly smile, "Vanya's looking for you, you know." She peered down at her brother(Younger? Older? She was too buzzed to really figure it out at the moment.) with foggy eyes that were quickly becoming clear at the sight of the boy. The blonde cleared her throat, "she called earlier. She said that you disappeared last night! Where did you go?"

"That's none of your business," he snapped.

Jemma flinched slightly at his tone. "You're our brother, Five. You show up after being gone for so long and we're worried." She explained as clearly as she could, though her words were slightly slurred. "That's all."

Five stared at her for a long moment. The softness in her blue eyes and the tone of her voice reminded him of their mother. Despite the signs of possible drunkenness that were slowly disappearing, Jemma could be a clone of their mother. Out of all of the eight children, Jemma certainly looked like she could actually be Grace's daughter with how similar they appeared. With that in mind, Five started to formulate a plan.

"You're worried?" Jemma nodded at him, "do you want to help me then?"

She tilted her head at him, "does it have to do with where you went last night?" She was obviously curious about it though still willing to help him with anything really.

"Yeah, yeah, totally."

Because her mind was slightly foggy and she wasn't able to comprehend the fact that her brother was being completely sarcastic, she smiled brightly and just about jumped at the opportunity to help him in some way. "Okay! What do you want me to do?"

He turned around and started to head in another direction, "change into something a bit more professional. You're going to act like my mom."

Jemma raised a small eyebrow at his words but nodded her head at his demands. "Alright!" She spun on her heels and started to walk away and speak her thoughts, "I'm sure mom will have some clothes I can borrow for... whatever this is."

* * *

"Five?" Vanya called as she entered the foyer of the Hargreeves home. It seemed to be empty with the lack of noise. She couldn't even hear the shuffling of Pogo walking around the parlor or the click-clack of Grace's heels. "Are you upstairs? Five?" She walked up the stairs and called out her brother's name while heading to the one place she would think that he was. She walked through the winding hallways and soon enough came to Five's bedroom. She entered the room to find the boy standing in front of his window with his back to her. "Oh, thank God. I was worried sick about you."

Five turned around to her with a small sigh, "sorry I left without saying goodbye."

"No, look, I'm the one that should be sorry." She shook her head with a soft voice, "yeah, I was dismissive, and I-I guess I didn't know how to process what you were saying. And I still can't, to be honest."

"Maybe you were right to be dismissive." He turned away from her, "maybe it wasn't real after all. It felt real. Well like you said, the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind." He flashed her a rueful smile before it flattened into a flat line.

A thought then popped into her head, "then maybe I'm not the right person for you to be talking to. Look, I used to see someone. A therapist." Five shook his head, "I could give you her information."

"Thanks, but I think I'm just gonna get some rest. It's been a long time since I've had a good sleep."

"Okay," she turned to leave the room with heavy feet. All she wanted to do was make sure that Five was okay after coming back home and telling her that he had seen the end of the world. She didn't know what that would really be like and how it would affect anyone mentally.

Once Vanya left the bedroom and started to walk down the hallway, Klaus emerged from Five's wardrobe. He was wearing a very bright ensemble of clothes that almost made him look like a clown. "That's so touching, all that stuff about family and Dad and time. Wow!"

"Would you shut up?" Five hissed, "she'll hear you."

Klaus continued on in a mock heartfelt voice, "I'm moist."

Five grimaced at the man's choice in clothing, "I told you to put on something professional."

"What?" Klaus glanced down at his clothing like there was nothing wrong with it, which he didn't think that there was. "This is my nicest outfit."

The time traveler shook his head with a heavy sigh and started to head out of the room. "We'll raid the old man's closet."

"As long as I get paid," Klaus pointed out.

"When the job is done."

The two of them walked out of the bedroom before Klaus stopped the two of them to go over the plan. "Okay, but just so we're clear on the finer details, I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?"

"Yeah." Five bluntly stated, "something like that."

"What's our cover story?"

Five was baffled, "what? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, was I really young when I had you?" Klaus asked, "like, 16? Like, young and terribly misguided?"

Klaus' dramatics were starting to get on Five's nerves and he started to wonder why he had asked his brother to help him. Then he remembered that Klaus was one of the only other people in the house. That and Klaus was easily swayed to do what he wanted for a simple price. "Sure."

The medium continued on with the creation of their cover story. "Your mother, that _slut_. Whoever she was."

"Nice of you to say that, dear."

The two brother's turned to find Jemma walking up the stairs towards them in a far more convincing outfit than Klaus. While the junkie appeared to not have put any effort into his outfit for Five's plan, Jemma seemed to have tried a bit. She wore a nice light green, spaghetti-strapped sundress that reached down to her knees. Her hair looked to have been brushed a bit and wasn't as unruly as her brother's had seen. She had light make-up on which consisted of just pink lipstick and mascara while her cheeks were a rosy hue. Whether that was due to alcohol still being in her system or because she had put some blush on her pale cheeks, neither Klaus or Five were sure. Though they had to admit that she looked good and nearly identical to their mother.

Five nodded in approval, "it's nice to see someone knows how to dress professionally."

Jemma smiled in thanks to him and turned to Klaus with a raised eyebrow, "what were you talking about just then?"

"Our cover story. We met at the disco. Okay?" Jemma nodded her head at her brother as she followed along with the story, "remember that. Oh, my God, the sex was _amazing_."

Jemma's nose wrinkled in disgust, "ew."

Five was outwardly annoyed now as he turned to walk away from his siblings, "What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain."

Klaus scowled at him and playfully narrowed his eyes while pointing at the young-looking boy. "Don't make me put you in time-out." The two who were acting as parents followed after Five down the stairs as they got ready to execute Five's plan.

* * *

A tow truck slowly pulled into the driveway of a garage and an old man climbed out of it once it was parked. It was the same old man that Five had talked with while at the diner the other day. The balding man walked into his garage and started to settle in for a busy day. He walked over to his landline with leisure steps to hear voicemail that was left on the phone. "Yo, Syd, it's Johnny. Hey, look, we got a bunch of extra tows down here, down on Empire Avenue. The whole thing is a disaster. Kids all arrested. Trucks as far as the eye can see." The old man, Syd turned when he suddenly heard a sound behind him only to get hit in the head by a crowbar.

Syd grunted as Cha-Cha clamped a pair of electrical clamps on his nipples after being beaten for a long while. After he had woken up from being knocked unconscious he found himself in chains with a pair of menacing people surrounding him. "You gotta tell me how you did the London job in '66." Cha-Cha commented nonchalantly as if she wasn't torturing a man right now, "beautiful work. Really."

"I swear to Christ," Syd started to plead as he was tied up with chain attached to the ceiling and shirtless, "I have no idea what you're talking- I am just a tow truck driver. I've never even been to London."

Hazel didn't listen to the man's words as he just pulled out Syd's sandwich like this was any other normal day, which it probably was for the pair of assassins. "Tuna? Delicious." He held it out to his partner, "you want half?"

She shook her head, "I'm fine, thanks." The casual conversation was quite unsettling to witness for poor old Syd who was scared out of his mind.

Hazel took a bite out of the sandwich as he stood up and grinned slightly before punching Syd in the face. That effectively bloodied up Syd's face more. "That's for no mayo."

Syd started to whimper in pain and fear which caused Cha-Cha to stare at their victim questioningly, "does Number Five seem like he'd be a whimperer to you?"

"Not from what I heard." Cha-Cha held up the picture of the older version of Five, their target, to Syd's face and eyed them closely. "That seems close enough to me."

"Strong resemblance, I'll grant you that," the brunette shook her head, "but the space between the eyes is different, the chin is not quite the same. There's a dimple."

Hazel nodded his head, "there is a dimple."

"I am not the guy that you are look-"

Annoyed with Syd's babbling, Cha-Cha turned on the electrical machine that shocked their captive into submission. She growled at him, "no talking."

Hazel thought for a moment, "he was the only guy in the doughnut shop, wasn't he?"

"Was there anyone else in the doughnut shop with you last night, Syd?" Cha-Cha asked harshly which caused the chained up man to flinch.

"I don't know, just the waitress and some kid."

The larger assassin just about scoffed at the vague answer, "some kid? Elaborate."

"I-I don't know." Syd panicked, "uh, He was weird."

"This isn't twenty questions, old man." It appeared that Syd was starting to get on Hazel's nerves just like Cha-Cha. However, even though both of them were assassins and worked in a gruesome, unforgiving profession, Cha-Cha and Hazel could be opposites when it came to different situations. One example, Cha-Cha got annoyed and angered far easier than Hazel. But that didn't mean Hazel didn't get annoyed after a while. "Weird how?"

Syd started to stumble over his words while trying to explain the strange kid he had sat next to while at the diner. "He said something about coming there when he was young."

They were silent for a moment as a thought crossed over Cha-Cha's mind as she looked up to Hazel, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Italian for dinner?" Leave it to Hazel to think of something that has nothing to do with the task at hand. That and it was focused on food as well.

Cha-Cha and Syd spared him a disbelieving look as his partner shook her head, "focus, I'm talking about the kid."

"What about him?" Hazel continued to eat his new sandwich as Cha-Cha pulled him away slightly.

"Time travel's a bitch."

The larger man thought about it for a minute, "especially without a briefcase."

"What if the kid is Number Five?" It seemed like an absurd idea to think about, however, anything could happen in their line of work.

Hazel's eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "it's sort of hard to wrap your head around."

Syd chuckled weakly as he heard their words. Perhaps this meant that they would let him go and stop the torture that was happening to him. "You see, I told you, I am not the guy."

Cha-Cha walked up to him with a fierce glare, "what else did you and the kid talk about?"

"I-I think that's it." Cha-Cha nodded her head and took off the clamps to put them on Syd's earlobes, "Oh, wait, wait, wait- What are you doing?"

She flashed him a sick smile, "jump-starting your memory." She then turned up the power on the cables and watched as the man shook in pain

He yelled out as electricity surged through his body and lit up each of his nerves. The power was cut off and allowed him to breathe. "All I remember is he wanted directions to some department store." The old man panted out, "that's it, I swear."

"Department store? Okay." Hazle commented before taking another bite of his sandwich, "Elaborate."

* * *

The Hargreeves household was quite as it was at the beginning of the day. While everyone was out doing what they wanted and needed, Allison was still in the vast house. "But I'm leaving for the airport. It's not a big deal if I miss one session." Her desperate voice asked as she was on the phone with her ex-husband, Patrick. "Patrick, it was my father's funeral. You know, I'm pretty sure the court recognizes that as extenuating circumstances." It didn't seem like Patrick agreed with that fact on the other end of the line. Allison's words then grew soft, "is Claire there? Yes, I would like to say hello to my daughter if that's all right with you." She paused for a moment and listened to his words of defiance to the idea. As she did that, Vanya came walking down the stairs slowly. "No. Patrick! Don't-" The phone call then ended with a heartbroken and angry Allison who slammed the phone on the receiver.

"Are you okay?" Vanya asked in concern.

Allison didn't look in her direction while she took a deep breath, "yeah."

"Well, I've never met your ex-husband, but he sounds like an asshole."

"That's one word for it." Allison collected herself and control her emotions.

"You know what?" Vanya flashed her a small, reassuring smile, "you're probably better off here."

Allison was taken aback by that statement and glared lightly at her sister, "no, I'm probably better off with my daughter."

Vanya's jaw opened and closed multiple times as she realized her mistake. "Of course, um I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"You know," Allison sneered in anger, "if I wanted advice, Vanya, no offense, it wouldn't be from you."

The powerless Hargreeves stared at her for a moment and absorbed those words,"what is that supposed to mean?"

"You don't have a child," Allison bit out, "you've never even been in a relationship."

"That's not true," Vanya shifted on her feet uncomfortably. It wasn't true. Yes, Vanya was in a few relationships as a teenager and young adult. Allison would have known that if they had talked regularly as children. The only one who probably did know about Vanya's few relationships was Jemma. That was mainly due to the two of them living together after they left the academy and that Jemma didn't exclude Vanya from her childhood like their other siblings had a tendency to do.

"So you know what it's like to love someone like this?" Vanya just stared at her in uncertainty. "Like when you're apart from her, you can't breathe? Like you would- you would die, and I- I mean actually die," Allison wanted to cry, "to know that she's okay and happy. You separate yourself from everyone and everything. You always have."

The taller woman's words stung Vanya, "Because Dad made me."

Allison wanted to scoff at her sister's lousy excuse, "Did Dad make you write that book about us, too?" After only seeing Vanya avoid her gaze and instead look down at the floor, Allison started to walk away and past Vanya. She turned to her sister before she abandoned her completely in the large house. "I know that you've been there for Jemma. I guess you're responsible for making sure that she stayed alive for all these years. So you know that you're an adult now." Vanya was the one who Jemma was closest to after they all left the academy. Even if Allison didn't like to admit it. But Vanya seemed to look after their sister the best she could. However, Allison couldn't help but think that Vanya could have done more to help Jemma and her problem. Could Allison have done more than Vanya…? Allison would say yes, but she honestly couldn't back that up with actions. "You don't get to blame your problems on anyone but yourself." With that, Allison turned around and left Vanya to wallow by herself. The words that she spoke hurt Vanya to her very core and all she wanted to do was go home and practice. Playing her violin would certainly take her mind off of everything.


	6. What Did You Say?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right. So. Hello. Been a long time. How are you guys? Are you lot as bored as I am? Cause I'm pretty bored. Quarantine has proven to be both boring and stressful here but now I think I can get back to writing some more. Of course, school is still going to be a slight problem, but I'll work around it.
> 
> I totally feel like I rushed this out. Especially with writing some of the scenes, they feel kind of cheap and lackluster. I don't know. You'll probably tell me how bad it is. 

**THE TRIO OF SIBLINGS SAT IN A** pristine, white, glass-walled office with the doctor that Five had talked to earlier in the day in front of them. Klaus and Jemma sat in chairs while Five stood behind them and paced every once in a while. He may have tried to hide it, but Jemma could easily see the young-looking boy was worried beyond belief. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it obviously had something to do with why they were at Meritech. 

"Like I said to your son earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential.” The frustrated doctor tried to explain calmly, “without the client's consent, I simply can't help you."

Five growled lowly at that, "well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name."

Jemma glanced at her brother in slight concern and confusion. The way Five gritted his teeth and glared at the doctor obviously indicated that he was angry and frustrated, but she didn’t know why. Yes, the doctor wasn’t giving Five what he wanted… but what was so special about a prosthetic eye? He had been arguing with the man for over twenty minutes now about getting the name of the owner to the eye. Jemma was slightly weirded out to find that her brother had been carrying it around for some time now, but she let that thought go. They’ve been in far weirder situations for a prosthetic eye to seem strange.

"Well, that's not my problem.” The doctor scoffed, breaking Jemma out of her thoughts, “sorry. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so--"

"And what about _my_ consent?" Everyone’s head snapped to face Klaus who had been sitting quietly during the whole argument. He had been calmly slouched in his chair with his hands clasped before him. 

"Excuse me?" The doctor asked in confusion.

Klaus just stared at the man and stood up while leaning his hands against the desk, "who gave you permission to lay your hands on our son?"

"What?" The three others in the room asked in confusion.

"You heard me."

The doctor gritted his teeth at the blatantly false accusation, "I didn't touch your son."

"Oh, really?” Klaus scoffed, “well, then how did he get that swollen lip, then?"

"He doesn't have a swollen--"

Klaus then wound his hand and slapped Five across the face. Jemma cringed at the sight and hoped that her junkie brother wouldn’t try to do the same to her. Five turned back around with a split lip and a scowl on his young face. "I want it.” Klaus demanded leaning against the pristine desk, “name, please. Now."

"You're crazy," the doctor breathed out in panic as he realized how far these three were willing to go in order to get the information they wanted.

"You got no idea,” Klaus then noticed a snow globe idly sitting on the doctor’s desk and picked it up, “'Peace on Earth.' That's _so_ sweet." Without any warning, Klaus slammed the globe into his face and shattered the glass on to his face. Now he was soaked and his forehead was bleeding. "God, that hurt!”

The frightened doctor reached for the phone on his desk in a hurry, “I'm calling secur--” Jemma then used her speed to grab the phone out of the man’s hands. He didn’t notice her speed as he was far to focused on the group of insane people sitting in front of him. “What are you doing?”

Jemma tried to make herself sound as hysterical as possible, "help! My son and husband have been assaulted, and we need security, now!” She slammed the phone down back into its receiver and smiled sweetly at the frightened doctor with her ruby lips. “Now, here's what's gonna happen, Grant."

The doctor gulped in fright, "It's Lance."

"In about 60 seconds,” Jemma ignored him and continued, “two security guards are gonna come through that door, and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood, and they're gonna wonder, 'What happened?'” She freighted fright, “and we're gonna tell them that you hurt _us_.” 

Klaus smiled proudly at his blonde sister, “you're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there. Little piece of chicken like you. Oh, my God, you're gonna get passed around like a--" Klaus waved his hand dismissively. "You're just You're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying."

Lance gaped in horror, "Jesus, you are some real sick people."

Klaus stared at him blankly as Five and Jemma stood off to the side with creepy smirks, "thank you."

* * *

The frightened doctor led the three siblings to the filing cabinets in order to get the information that they wanted. He eyed them warily as he sorted through the files and pulled out the correct one. However, when he stared at the designated serial number of the eye that the young boy had, there was something completely off about it. "Oh, that's strange."

Klaus jumped off of the cabinet he was previously sitting on and moved to stand uncomfortably close to the doctor. "What?" 

"Uh, the eye.” He tried to ignore the three psychos burning gazes and tried to keep his focus on the papers in front of him. “It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."

Jemma’s eyebrows furrowed as she leaned on the doctor’s other side to catch a glimpse of the paperwork. "What do you mean?"

Lance glanced at them and started to explain, "well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number- This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet.” He, Klaus and Jemma looked up to stare at the one who was adamant about finding out about this prosthetic eye. “Where did you get that eye?"

Five just clenched his jaw in frustration.

* * *

The trio of siblings came out of the building after getting the information that they wanted. Well, the information that Five wanted, and it certainly wasn’t what he was looking for. If anything, the fact that he now knew that the eye that he has from the future hasn’t even been made yet was certainly off-putting. "Well, this is not good," Five sighed.

"I was pretty good, though, right?” Klaus asked excitedly, “'Yeah. What about my consent, _bitch_?'" Jemma laughed along with him as he started to imitate himself from only a few minutes away. She had to admit that it was quite impressive how Klaus was able to manipulate the situation and get what he wanted. Though it isn’t really anything new. She and Klaus had to do quite a bit of manipulation to get what they wanted and usually teamed up to do it. Whether it be drugs or alcohol, they could say that they were skilled at getting what they wanted. 

Five abruptly turned to his two siblings with an irritated scowl, "Klaus, it doesn't matter."

Jemma stopped laughing and stared at him with an inquisitive stare. "Why are you so interested in a prosthetic eye, Five?"

"There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days."

Jemma blinked at him slightly disturbed, "that's oddly specific, how do you even know that?"

"They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it." Jemma continued to blink at him in confusion as she tried to absorb his words. ‘End of life on the Earth’... she played around with that statement in her head for a few minutes as Klaus and Five started to bicker.

"Yeah, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?"

Five scoffed, "Your 20 bucks?"

"Yeah,” Klaus said as he had yet to pick up on Five’s words and the fact that Jemma seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, “my 20 bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and you can think about is getting high?"

"Well, I'm also quite hungry.” He patted his stomach still unfazed, “tummy's a-rumblin'."

Jemma ignored Klaus for a moment and stared at Five with wide, questioning eyes, “Wait, did you say _apocalypse_?” If she had been drunk, Jemma would have laughed at Five and found this hilarious. The apocalypse? Ha! Then she’d just ignore him and continue to drown herself. However, with a clear mind, she could see the seriousness in Five’s young face and hear the determination in his voice. She believes him when he said that the apocalypse is coming. It’s just going to take her a few moments to process it. Maybe about two dozen shots will also help her.

Five ignored her and became beyond frustrated, "you're useless. You're all useless!" He turned and plopped himself down on the stone stairs. Jemma and Klaus followed suit, one in exasperation and the other with wobbly knees.

"Oh, come on.” Klaus whined, “you need to lighten up, old man.” A thought then struck him, “hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell!” 

Jemma cringed, “Klaus!” She definitely didn’t want to think about that in any way. Especially about any of her siblings. The blonde didn’t need to hear about the activities her brothers or sisters got up to in a private setting.

Klaus just brushed her off and sighed, “all those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone." 

They were silent for a moment as they took that in. There would have been nothing for Five there, in the future. The world must have been in ruins after the apocalypse. Everyone must have been dead and gone when he arrived there. It must have suck being stuck in the future by yourself with no one to talk to. Jemma was actually surprised that Five wasn’t batshit crazy after all of that. She certainly would have lost her mind after the first day. 

"Well, I wasn't alone."

That piqued his siblings' interest as they turned to him. "Oh? Pray tell."

"Her name was Delores.” His gaze turned wistful as he started to reminisce in the past about this woman. Jemma was actually surprised to see that her brother was somewhat enamored by someone. “We were together for over 30 years."

"Thirty years?” She questioned in astonishment and awe. Delores must be a special lady for Five to stick around with her for three decades.

“Oh, wow! God, the longest I've been with someone was-- I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though. It was--” He cut himself off when he noticed that the small boy was gone from the stairs. “Five?"

As Klaus rambled about on of his past relationships, Five had grown irritated, like always, and spacial jumped into a taxi that had been driving past. "Don't stop.” He had told the startled driver who was completely surprised to find a boy who magically appeared in his back seat. “Just keep going."

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,” Klaus jumped up enraged as he stomped in place. Five past in the cab and sarcastically shot both of his siblings a half-ass salute as he was driven away. “what about my money?!"

Jemma gulped. Her nerves were on high alert “C-come on, Klaus. Let’s head back to the academy,” Her eyes shined with a false eagerness, “I’ll make something for lunch if you want...” She needed a distraction at the moment. She was definitely going to hit the bottle when she got home. Plus, since Klaus was obviously hungry, she would cook him up some lunch. At least then she would be somewhat useful.

With that Jemma and Klaus started to make their trek back to the academy. Klaus talked all the while about how annoying Five was and Jemma half-listened to it. The lingering thought of the apocalypse was in the back of her mind and weighing heavily on her. What the hell was going on?

* * *

Vanya swayed as she allowed her music to take control of her. She was in need of some sort of distraction after her interaction with Allison and practicing her violin was a good way of doing that. Just as she was about to start another measure in her piece, there was a knock at the door. “He's not here, Mrs. Kowalsk,” she called out before continuing to practice her piece. Yet she paused once again when the knocking continued. Growing fed up, Vanya sighed in frustration and stopped playing to open her door. “Mr. Puddles isn't here.” Instead of being faced with her elderly neighbor, there was a young man standing in front of her. “Can I help you?”

The man that was at her door was a bit taller than her. He had dark brown hair on his head and a slightly round face. His eyes were a dark brown color that looked down at her with confusion and kindness. “I'm Leonard.” He introduced himself, “I'm your four o'clock.”

“Oh, my-” Vanya gasped, “I forgot. I am so sorry.”

The man raised his hands in surrender and chuckled, “I swear I had nothing to do with Mr. Puddles.”

“Oh, no Sorry, it's, uh, my neighbor, Mrs. Kowalski. She--" the ordinary woman sighed, "well, she has this cat that always goes missing. She thinks I know where it is. I don't. She's older. And I should stop talking. I'm so sorry." The two of them laughed lightly, though Vanya's was more out of embarrassment. "Please come in.”

Leonard walked into her apartment and turned to her once the door was shut. They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before he started to take off his jacket. “I'm guessing I look different than your usual students.”

“Um, yeah, you can just," she motioned for him to put his jacket down, "Yeah, 20 years or so different." She does mainly teach kids from seven to twelve with some teenagers every once in a while. Though it wasn't like Vanya had never taught someone closer to her age. It wasn't that strange, but Vanya would say she works easier with kids.

"Well, the ad didn't say anything about age limits," Leonard said with a smile.

Vanya nodded her head and avoided eye contact. "No, no, of course not. It's most of my students are kids. Easier to learn music when you're young. You know, like a second language."

"Ich verstehe!" The man suddenly shouted which caused Vanya to stare at him in confusion. "That's German for "I understand." I took three years of that in high school. And that's all I can remember."

"Mm. Well, it's right over here. If you wanna-" she said and pointed towards her violin, "Let me just Sorry-"

Her newest student waved his hand, "Oh, it's fine."

She started to shuffle through her papers to find the pieces that she needs to start teaching him. "-get organized for a second."

"Mm-hmm." Leonard hummed and picked up the instrument. "Ah." He glided the bow across the strings harshly which caused a cringeworthy sound to stick their ears.

"Oh!" Vanya exclaimed and cringed at the sound, "You're really just going for it."

"Yeah."

Vanya walked over to him, "Um, no, I'll actually take that." She took the violin from her new student, "and we're just gonna start with the basics." 

* * *

At the gym, Diego waltzed through the door after being released from the police precinct. Even though Detective Patch had given him a warning about not getting involved, there was no way in hell that he was going to do that. Call it stupidity or curiosity, but Diego wanted to find out what was going on. The knife-thrower greeted many of the people who were working out which was reciprocated with smiles and waves.

He approached the back room that he has been living in for a while now and stopped when he noticed that the door had been open. There was someone in his room. He pulled out one of his many knives and subtly opened the door a small sliver. He threw the knife and sent it soaring through the air towards the intruder. It embedded itself in the wood right next to the trespasser and may or may not have skinned his ear. Diego just wanted to scare him a bit.

“Ow!” Luther exclaimed and check on his ear that he knew had a cut on it thanks to Diego, “what the-” 

The knife thrower scoffed and closed his door while his jaw tensed at the sight of his brother, “I could smell it was you.”

Luther looked pissed, “what the hell? You could have killed me.”

“If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead.” Diego bit out and walked down the stairs.

The tense atmosphere was obvious between the two brothers as Diego approached Luther and held his hand out for his knife. He got his knife back and started to settle down

“It's a nice place.” Luther's attempt to make small talk was met with a cold response.

“I like it.”

“So why didn't you tell me?” Luther cut to the chase.

Diego already knew what he was referring to but didn’t see a point in talking about it. “Tell you what?”

Luther held up a poster that he found earlier that displayed the match that Diego fought in. "That you were fighting the night that Dad died. I checked with the guys out there." Proof when the proof was needed. Luther's suspicions about Diego were finally snuffed out with this piece of evidence. 

The knife-thrower scoffed at his revelation. Why did it matter? "Well, I shouldn't have to prove my innocence to you or anyone else in this family."

"Yeah, you're right." Luther sighed. "But, I just thought that-"

Diego cut him off with a small sneer, "Yeah. I know what you thought." He was angered by the fact that Luther was quick to accuse him and the rest of their siblings for killing Hargreeves. Yes, Diego was the most outspoken about how much he hated the old man, but he would never go as far as to kill their father. Diego wasn't going to let that go. Not any time soon. "Now you have a nice day, _brother_."

Seeing that Diego wanted nothing else with him and was still upset about his accusations, Luther decided that it was time to leave. "All right." He lumbered up the stairs, around his brother, and exited the room. Diego barely turned to watch him leave.

* * *

Klaus lounged across the basement table as he groaned in exhaustion. His stomach had been thoroughly filled to the brim full of quite a few different foods. For some reason, Jemma had started to cook far more than just making one meal for them. It was like she was trying to feed the entire family for thanksgiving. Yet Klaus ate it all and was unsure if he should regret that or not.

Jemma was still pretty shaken up by what Five had revealed to them. Unlike Klaus who didn't seem to care or believe Five, Jemma was starting to worry. The sudden reappearance and his insistence to stay away from them started to add up in her mind. So she ended up stress cooking. She usually did this when she was nervous or stressed, plus, Klaus insisted that she make him some lunch. It was either this, or she tries to drown herself.

Her throat was already starting to burn at the thought of chugging at least ten bottles of alcohol or as much as she could find in the house. Sobriety was a pipe-dream anyway. She had been sober for far too long anyway. Though she was somewhat proud of herself! She has gone at least four hours without having a drink, a new record. 

"Jem," Klaus broke her out of her troubled thoughts as she leaned over the sink. Hewas changed out of the clothes he used for his disguise and was in a more comfortable outfit. "You're going to break that plate." He commented lazily as he rested his hands on his stomach that was filled to the brim with his sister's wonderful cooking. He looked up to watch as Jemma paused in her vigorous scrubbing of a plate that she was cleaning up. She hadn't even noticed that she was using her superspeed and nearly broke it.

The blonde set the plate down before she accidentally shattered it due to how fast she was scrubbing it. With a large sigh, Jemma placed her wet hands on the edge of the counter as she closed her eyes in contemplation. Having superspeed had its advantages, but having super thoughts, as she dubbed it, wasn't one of them. The expression of "racing thoughts" was not just an expression to her. She literally could think over ten times faster than anyone else, which could cause her a lot of anxiety. Alcohol usually helped with slowing down those thoughts. A glass of the burning liquid didn't seem to bad at that moment.

Seeing the conflicted look on his sister's face, Klaus sat up on the table. He watched how she controlled her breathing and her hands were shaking. He could easily recognize the signs of her anxiety and withdrawal. He knew that she had gone a while for drinking and she needed it bad. Though besides the need for a drink, there was something else bothering her.

"What's wrong," He asked her with furrowed brows.

Jemma glance at him over her shoulder with large eyes as she watched him moved to sit on the edge of the table to get a better look at her. She could tell that he was curious about her behavior but most likely had an idea about what was causing her to be so fidgety.

She turned around completely and leaned against the sink. Her head was turned to the side so she didn't have to stare at him. Jemma wasn't sure if he would still look at her with disappointment and sadness. Ever since they were teens he usually had that expression whenever he was around her. Of course, it developed after she had gained her alcohol addiction and she knew it was for that reason. Though, isn't it hypocritical? Klaus had an addiction longer than she did, why did he get to judge her or feel bad about what she did to herself?

What she didn't realize was that he was upset with how much she had taken after him. When they were kids, it was always Klaus, Jemma, and Ben. They were thick as thieves, far more than they were with any of their other family members. So when Jemma became depressed as a teenager, Klaus tried to help her any way he could. That included introducing her to some bad things, like alcohol. She used to be this innocent little girl who had such an optimistic look on the world. Jemma always found a way to brighten everyone's day but now she's just a shell of her past self. Klaus wasn't disappointed in her, really. More so himself for playing a part in making her like this.

Jemma clicked her tongue, "I can't get what Five said out of my head..."

"What about the _apocalypse_?" Klaus put as much sarcasm behind his words as he could. Obviously, he didn't take what Five had said as serious as Jemma does. "Come on, Jem. The old man's crazy. You can't believe everything he says, you know."

"Why not?" She asked softly and crossed her arms over her chest. "He's our brother, and yes he may not be all there. But why would he _lie_, especially about something like this?"

Klaus pretended to think with a hand on his chin, "Because he thought all of this up in his insane little mind while he was by himself."

Jemma bit her lips as her anxiety was still high, "But what if he didn't?"

"Then I guess we best party hard because it's the end of the world!" Klaus cheered.

The blonde couldn't help herself but laugh lightly at him. Even in this situation where she was worried beyond belief, Klaus somehow got her to smile for a second. Yet her lips dipped downward again as her laughter died. 

"Well," she licked her lips and turned to rummage through the cabinets. "Partying sounds fun." She cheered softly when she grabbed the cool bottle on one of the highest shelves. "Which means drinks, right?"

Klaus sighed now that Jemma had the bottle of poison in her hands. He also didn't like the look in her eyes. She seemed so willing to drown herself now, so upsetting. Of course, he wasn't the only one upset about her behavior.

"I guess."

Jemma took the cap off of the bottle and downed about half of it in one gulp. Her throat burned for a moment, but it satisfied her quite a bit. It was going to take her at least ten to twelve bottles of hard liquor to get her slightly buzzed, she knew that it would be worth it though. Being able to escape reality was always a good thing.

"If you need me, I'll be in my room, okay?" Jemma said as she started to shuffle out of the room. Klaus watched her go reluctantly.

Once the blonde was gone, Klaus turned his gaze to the man who sat in the chair at the head of the table. He could see the sadness in his dark eyes that were still glued to where Jemma had gone. Klaus didn't like seeing him like this, upset about Jemma. However, there wasn't much that he could do to help the ghost. "She'll be fine, Ben." Klaus said and let out a heavy sigh, "She usually is."

* * *

Leonard had the violin in his hands as he continued to play a slow and shaky rendition of Frere Jacques. "That's coming along." Vanya complimented his progress.

He chuckled and placed the instrument down, "Looks like I chose the right teacher."

"Oh," Vanya looked away a Leonard chuckled slightly. "I don't know about that. My next student could probably lecture me on what I'm doing wrong. She's- She's a bit of a prodigy."

"Well, you can relax." Leonard nodded his head, "I have never been a prodigy at anything."

Vanya sighed, "Well, that makes two of us."

There was a beat of silence between the two that was becoming slightly awkward. The intense stare that Leonard had on Vanya was causing her to become slightly uncomfortable but she chalked that up for the fact that they just met.

"So - So, I will see you next week, and, uh, practice the bow hold," she took her violin from him and place it on the couch, "uh, and maybe - get a violin."

The two of them chuckled slightly "You can be honest. Do you think it's weird wanting to learn violin this late in life?"

"No, no. Monet didn't really start painting until his forties." She shrugged her shoulders, "He did all right for himself. No, if you love music, then you're in the right place."

Leonard let out a breath, "I'd say you're describing my dad more than me. He was the music lover. It's kind of why I'm here. He passed away a while ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Leonard waved her off, "Oh, no, it's fine. We had a complicated relationship. Didn't really get each other, you know?" Vanya was able to draw a parallel between herself and Leonard at just that statement. "But he loved violin, and that was not my thing. So I guess I'm here to understand him better, if that makes any sense. Family. It's never easy, right?" The man chuckled, "Sorry for getting heavy on you there." He stared at her intensely for a moment, as if he knew she could understand where he was coming from. "Um, stupid, I know."

Vanya shook her head and brushed off the strange feeling she was getting from him, "No. No, stupid is not knowing. Believe me, uh, I get it."

She really did understand where he was coming from. Considering she grew up as the only ordinary child from a group of superpowered kids with a father who valued her less than the others, she knew how bad family could be sometimes.

"Mm-hmm." Leonard hummed and pulled on his jacket, "Well... thanks. Guess I'll see you next week."

"Yeah."

Before leaving the apartment, Leonard paused and turned to her with a smile. "Uh I'm a woodworker. I have a shop in, uh, Bricktown." The woman stared at him in confusion, "You should come by some time. You know, check it out."

Vanya froze for a second and blinked. He was inviting her to his shop? After they'd only just met. A moment of silence passed before Vanya found her voice again. "This week I'm busy, but-"

"It's fine." Leonard said with a small trace of disappointment in his voice, "I understand. Another time. See you next week."

"Bye." Now that Vanya was alone with her thoughts, her chest started to swell with an unsure feeling. She had only known Leonard for about two hours. Should she go to his shop? She wasn't sure.

* * *

The city skyline was bright as shining lights brightened up streets and buildings now that it was dark out. As the moon shined down on the still bustling city, Allison stared up at the sky. Her thoughts ran rampant about what she had done during the day. What she said to Vanya was haunting her slightly. She shouldn't of said those things to the ordinary woman. Allison had no doubt that she may have hurt her sister's feelings. She took a drag of her cigarette and continued to debate how badly she treated Vanya.

"Ah, Miss Allison." Pogo said as he approached the sulking woman, "I was looking for you."

Allison quickly tried to hide her cigarette, not that discreetly and turned to him. "How did you, uh, How did you know I was up here?"

Pogo walked closer to the woman, "Oh, it wasn't hard. This is always where you used to come when you were upset."

"Who told you I was-" Allison sighed, "Luther."

Pogo shook his head, "Actually, it was Miss Vanya. She called to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah," Allison said as it was clear she was upset with herself, "I, um I said some pretty unkind things to her."

Pogo shook his head, "She's your sister. She knows you didn't mean it."

Allison scoffed, "Doubt it. She doesn't know anything about me, which is fine 'cause I don't know shit about her either."

"Language."

"Sorry." She apologized, "It's just it's been a while since we've all lived under the same roof."

The chump reminisced for a moment, "Almost 13 years."

"How did you do it? Alone in this huge house for so long."

"Well, one grows used to things, even if, sometimes one shouldn't." A beat of silence passed between them as they digested the sad truth behind his words. "Come with me. I want to show you something. It might just cheer you up." He started to walk out of the attic with the woman following him. Though he called back to her, "And make sure you fully extinguish that cigarette. Wouldn't want to start a fire."

Allison cringed slightly at being caught smoking. She shuffled back over to the windowsill and made sure that her cigarette was extinguished completely before following after chimp. She wasn't sure what he had in mind to cheer her up, and she was quite curious about it.

* * *

Pogo lead Allison through the house to a small room that she hadn't been in before. In the room, there were about a dozen screens of old televisions with cabinets that seemed to be full of VCR tapes. Some screens had nothing but snow on them, others had the happy faces of the children apart of the Umbrella Academy. The shouts and laughter from years ago caused Allison to stare in shock as she was overwhelmed by nostalgia. "Your father stopped recording years ago." He explained, "But I still come here from time to time. When I'm missing you kids."

"Pogo, this is--" she stammered out in astonishment, "Most families have home movies to look back on. We have surveillance footage." She watched a clip of young Klaus getting himself a drink at the bar. It was upsetting to think that a child was getting involved in something as addictive as alcohol or drugs at only age thirteen, but it was normal for Klaus at the time. She watched another screen of Jemma and Ben in the living room reading together. A bittersweet smile crawled on Allison's face at the sight.

The chimp smiled slightly at the expression on the woman's face, "I hoped it might cheer you up."

She smiled, "It does. Oh, my God, look how little we were." She watched each screen that had her and her siblings from years ago. "Oh!" She pointed at one of them, "Ben and I? I miss him so much." Then she caught sight of the only ordinary family member playing her violin by herself. "And Vanya. Why didn't we include her? I mean, if anybody ever treated Claire like that, I can't even imagine..."

"You were a child, Miss Allison," Pogo argued.

"Yeah but I'm not anymore." Allison bowed her head slightly, "And neither is she."

"If you're not in a hurry," Pogo started and gestured behind them, "the rest of the tapes are in that cabinet. Make sure you lock up when you go. Things have been disappearing lately. These are too important to lose."

Allison nodded her head and took the keys from him. Mesmerized by the screens with videos from her past, she barely noticed Pogo leave the room. She certainly didn't notice the meaningful glance he gave her right before he left the room.

Allison soon started to rummage through some of the other tapes to see what they were. There were a few that piqued her interest, however, she paused. She caught sight of another tape that was resting on top of the screens. Its label had been torn off unlike the others that had been carefully labeled with the dates. She picked up the tape and stared at it for a moment before deciding to put it in.

She sat down in her chair and watched as the tape played. "Oh, God." Allison gasped out as she stared at the screen in shock, "Dad."

* * *

As Allison was watching the troubling tapes of her father’s death, Jemma plopped down onto her plush bed. A bottle of whiskey was tightly held in her small hands as she leaned against her headboard. 

She leaned against the plush, soft pillows of her childhood bed and took another gulp from the bottle. The liquid burned her throat in such a satisfying way that she felt almost content. Her mind was slowly starting to numb, but she's going to need more to fully let go of reality. It's a good thing she brought another bottle with her which waws currently glaring at her from her desk. Of course, right next to it was the picture that caused her so much heartbreak at the nostalgia and reminders it brought up.

She tried to get as comfy as she could on her bed, but she couldn't. There was just this uncomfortable feeling that wouldn't leave her alone. No matter how she sat or rearranged the pillows behind her, there was no way that she could get rid of the heavy feeling in her chest. 

Jemma sighed and took another small swig of her drink. Though she paused after she took one last sip. She looked at the bottle and seemed to have a staring contest with the inanimate object. For a moment, she thought that the bottle would start to taunt her. She thought that it would start teasing her about how much of a failure she was, how she disappoints her siblings, or how she lost the one person who truly understood her.

Her small hands gripped the bottle tightly like she was about to break it. Though that would only make a mess and waste some perfectly good alcohol. She needed to calm down. All she was doing at the moment was causing her anxiety to fester even more. Jemma didn't need to psych herself out any more than she already had. 

Five's foreboding of the end of the world may just be something he thought up like Klaus said. Or not. Either way, drinking could help her cope with it.

Yet for some reason, she felt like there were eyes watching her every move. Perhaps they were the reason that she had this heavy feeling in her chest. Her eyes floated over to the only possible source of the feeling of being watched. It was the picture of Ben.

Her lips puckered and her eyes narrowed at the image of the past. The happy image caused her lip to quiver slightly. "You'd be so disappointed in me," she softly said. "I know you would hate how I am now. _I_ hate myself." Her voice, laced with remorse, cracked as she stared at the picture of her best friend. She rolled her eyes as she started to cry slightly. "I can't do anything right! I'm an alcoholic coward now who is scared of just about everything!" 

Through her self-loathing and thinking that she was alone she never thought that the one person she wished she was talking to was actually watching her with sad eyes. He raised his hand and tried to lay it on her shaking shoulder, only for it go through her. 

She shivered slightly as a chill traveled down her spine but ignored it as she wiped her eyes. "I'm pathetic," she chuckled humorously, "here I am, talking to myself like you're actually here."

She gave one last look at the picture with watery eyes before downing the rest of her drink. Yet she had no idea that Ben had been listening like he usually did. Always listening but unable to talk back. So he watched as she curled up on her bed and started to cry. His frustration with the situation was evident from the way his brow creased. He desperately wanted to contradict her, tell her that she was wrong. However, she couldn't hear ghosts like their brother. The two of them were separated by the thin veil that kept the living from interacting with the dead. What an unfortunate predicament.

* * *

While a light rain painted the empty parking lot of the Grimble Brothers clothing store, Five spacial jumped through the locked doors of the shop. He was determined to find who he was looking for, there was no way that he was going to leave without her.

He grabbed a flashlight from a bin and used it to navigate through the aisle of clothes. He looked at just about everything with his hands shoved in her pockets as usual. Soon enough, he saw exactly who he was looking for.

"Delores." He let a small smile crawl on his face, "It's good to see you." Of course, Delores didn't respond because she was a mannequin. "I've missed you... obviously. Well, It's been a rough couple of days." Just as he was having a heartfelt reunion with the inanimate object, the two assassins who had been following the boy came into the shop. They put on their masks and readied their weapons. The boy saw them coming a little too late, "No!" Bullets were soon shot at him. Five easily recognized the colorful masks, "Oh, shit! It's them." He made quick work of making sure that Delores was out of danger and held her with care, "I'll be right back for you." Then he rushed off through the racks of clothes.

Cha-Cha and Hazel looked for the time traveler and shot at anything that appeared to move. At one point, Cha-Cha was able to catch sight of the kid only for him to disappear into thin air just as she fired her gun. "You see that?" She called over to her partner.

Hazel shrugged his shoulders, "You said he was special. So now what?"

"You start over there, I'll go to the other end." The pink rabbit told him, "Meet in the middle. Shoot anything that moves."

For the next few minutes, Five weaved through the racks of clothes and hide from the assailants. Showers of bullets rained down on him as he spacial jumped from one part of the store to another in order to find the duffle bag he needed. He certainly wasn't going to try and leave just yet. He had to get Delores! He ended up finding a bag and quickly made his way back to Delores to put her into it. Okay, now he could try and getaway.

"Elastic wrist splint." Hazel cheered as he held them, distracted from their mission. "Yes!"

Five tried to spacial jump again but found that he couldn't. He must have exhausted himself to the point where he could no longer use his power. "Shit!" The boy cursed as he tried to jump again but got the same disappointing result. "Come on!"

The boy continued to run through the shop before jumping over a display shelf. The two shooters followed after him and suddenly had him cornered with nowhere to go. "Got him!"

However, they were distracted by the sirens and police lights that came from outside. Their little shoot out had definitely caught the attention of law enforcement. When Cha-Cha and Hazel looked back at where the young-looking killer had been, he was gone. "The bastard jumped again," Hazel said in frustration.

The two assassins sighed in defeat. They were so close to getting this job over and done with, but now they had to find that little asshole again. "Come on, let's go." As the two assassins left, Five was huddled up behind a cash register with Delores tightly in his grasp. That was certainly a close one for him.

* * *

Back at the academy, before Luther could get into his childhood room, Allison followed after him. “There you are.” Allison gasped as she walked up to the bulky figure of Luther, “I've been looking everywhere for you."

The dirty blond furrowed his eyebrows at the woman’s appearance. “What are you doing here? I thought you were gone.” He wasn't really upset about that. If she stayed longer, it just meant that he could see her more. 

"No," she shook her head, her curls swaying slightly, "I was gonna go, and then Pogo showed me this-"

The large man cut her off, "Well, listen- I was wrong about Dad's death."

Confusion painted Allison's features, "What?" After what she had just discovered, she could say that Luther may not be wrong about their father's death.

"Yeah, I was wrong about Diego." He clarified and let out a sigh, "You know, to accuse my own brother of that is just-"

"No," Allison nodded her head and tried to get out what she knew was extremely important. "I-I know, I get it-"

Luther just continued on, "Seeing all of you and being back here I should be the one who's trying to bring us back together, not tear us apart."

"Would you shut up?" Allison exclaimed in frustration.

Luther was stunned, "What?"

"-You were right about Dad. Come on, I gotta show you something." As Allison started to lead Luther towards the room filled with screens and tapes, they saw that one of their other brothers was coming up the stairs. "Five?" The actress gasped at the disheveled state of the time traveler. His clothes were ripped and he held a large duffle bag in his hands. "What the hell happened to you?" 

See his crescent fallen expression, Luther turned to him and spoke softly with concern lacing his words. "Are you okay?" Luther reached out a hand to place it on the boy's shoulder, "Can we help?"

Five grabbed his arm before Luther could get close to touching him. "There's nothing you can do." His aged eyes stared up at the bulky man with no emotion as he reminisced in a painful memory. "There's nothing any of you can do."

* * *

In the apocalypse, Five walked through the remains of a building and came upon a strange sight. Through the rubble, a hand jutted out from under layers of bricks and concrete. It held a bloody prosthetic eye. He grabbed the eye from the cold hand and stared at it in confusion. Then he looked up to see who the hand belonged to. It was a large blonde man who was covered in ash and blood. There was an eerily familiar look to the man that Five was scared to admit. It had to be Luther. Even though he was older, Five had a feeling that it was Number One. Panic seeped into his chest as he realized where he was. He rushed towards the next body that he could see.

It was Diego who was laid out on his stomach. Five shook his brother's shoulder to try and get a response but obviously didn't get one. Not too far away, a woman with bushy hair was also covered in rubble, dead. Allison. Three of his siblings were dead, fear struck his heart. He stood up to look around some more and came to find another man, Klaus, laid on the ground. His lifeless eyes staring in his direction. 

Now, it would be hard to identify his siblings who would be significantly older than the last time he saw them. He did travel into the future, after all. Perhaps these people weren't his siblings. They all had superpowers which could mean that they may have survived this. There was a small possibility that these people were just strangers to him. Despite his want and need for these dead people not to be his siblings, the umbrella academy tattoo on Klaus' arm glared back at the young boy. There was no denying it. All of these people were his family.

He gulped and just about nearly burst into tears. Though it would be okay for him to do that. There was no one around to see him cry because everyone on the planet was dead, as far as he could tell. However, as the sound of his blood pumping through his ears and the crackling of the fires burning, he could hear a subtle gasp coming from a pile of concrete.

Someone was alive. 

From the sound of the gasps, Five could tell that this person was barely alive. They were struggling for their next gulp of oxygen and most likely dying quite slowly. He wasn't sure how this person could have survived since everyone else seemed to be dead, but he didn't care for that right now. All that mattered was seeing who it was that had miraculously survived. 

He rounded a large pile of rubble and found a petite body stuck underneath the concrete. A hollow gasp came out of their mouth as Five quickly approached them. He saw the matching tattoo that he had on pale skin which could only belong to one other person since he found his other siblings.

“Jemma?” He knelt down to her side and started to move some of the rubble off of her broken body. She grunted in pain as he lifted some off of her chest to allow her to breathe. “Hey, hey.” She stared at him with half-lidded eyes, pale cheeks, and severe cuts all over her face. It was quite obvious that she was critically injured. Sections of her blonde hair were painted in an ugly red hue because of the blood that stuck to her face. “Jemma, it’s me. It’s Five,” her head lolled to the side, “no, stay awake!”

She had the strength to turn back to him and tried to keep her eyes open as long as she could, “F-F-Fi-Five.” He cracked lips split from her effort to speak. Five could only think that the reason she was still alive was because of her superspeed and how her body is able to recover quickly from certain injuries. That meant that she would survive this. He would have her, so he wouldn’t be alone after all. She couldn’t just leave him. He knew that she wouldn’t leave him, she didn’t do that to people.

Five didn’t want to admit it, but he was starting to sob at the sight of his sister. Not only was she far older than the last time he saw her, but she was near death. He certainly didn’t like seeing her in this state and knew that he only had moments with her. “What happened? Jemma, what happened?” He held her hand as delicately as he could to make sure he didn’t cause her any more pain, but he wanted to make sure that she knew he was there. He also wanted to assure himself that this was real, that his sister was dying right in front of him.

She started to tear up as she stared at her long-lost brother with a mix of relief, pain, and contentment in her blue eyes. “H-Har…” Her voice cracked and sounded like a scratchy record player, “H-H-Har-Har-.” She was putting so much effort into saying one word that she felt like all of the energy had been drained. Her electric blue iris’ started to dim as the hold that she had on his hand started to weaken.

Five started to panic, “no no no no no. Jemma! Please, stay awake!”

Jemma was gone.

The blonde's large, round, vacant eyes stared up at him. The haunting dull blue iris were no doubt going to sear themselves into Five's brain.

Now, he was alone. All alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that was good enough. I'm starting to get back in the grove of writing fanfiction. I'm still working on my original story, "The Others", but it's almost done so I can focus on writing these stories. Until the next update, my friends. 


	7. Extra Ordinary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooow, took me a while to get this chapter done. Well anyway, it's finally summer! No more high school for me! Finally graduated and ready to head off to college. I just wish I could have had a party or something for it with friends :/ though I have nothing better to do than write so I can probably start updating everything a bit more. So here's the beginning of Episode three and chapter seven!

_ **5 YEARS AGO** _

_Vanya trudged across the busy street as noon started to roll around. She had just finished one of her practices for the orchestra and was heading back to her shared apartment. However, as she passed by _

_"My name is Vanya Hargreeves, and this is my story."_

_For days, weeks, maybe months, Vanya wrote whenever she could. Details about her less than stellar life were typed out on her trusty red typewriter as she poured her views and thoughts on her family onto the paper. Though she tried to keep this as quiet as possible, Vanya didn't want Jemma to see what she was doing. Eventually, she sent her manuscript to a publisher who ate up her biography like it was honey. _

_"We were never a real family. We were our father's creation, family in name... but not in fact." _

_Her story became a pretty big hit within its first week of release. People bought the book excitedly. They desperately wanted to read up on the lives of The Umbrella Academy after they seemingly disbanded a few years ago. Practically everyone knew about the Hargreeves family and their claim to fame as children. However, to read more about their lives during and after they were publicly revealed as the small team of child crime fighters was interesting. Add in the fact that apparently there were eight children instead of the seven that the public knew of, and you have a perfectly fascinating story for people to read._

_"In the end, after our brother Ben had died, there was really nothing connecting us. We were just strangers living under the same roof..."_

_Of course, after the publication of her biography, the other Hargreeves children just had to get their own copies. It was obvious to say that they weren't exactly happy to see what exactly Vanya had to say about their lives._

_"...destined to be alone..."_

_Luther, still at the academy, read the book while he did his daily workouts. _

_"...starved for attention..."_

_Allison read it while she was on set, which proved to be a bit of a problem for her makeup crew._

_"...damaged by our upbringing..."_

_The more violent of the siblings, Diego, used Vanya portrait on the back of her book as a target for his punching bag._

_At an AA meeting, Klaus sat with the book in his hand while his ghostly brother looked over his shoulder with his mouth agape._

_"Oh, my God. She wrote that?" Ben gaped at the things that Vanya had to say about their abysmal childhood. "I can't believe she would do that." _

_"Shh!" Klaus tried to shush him only to earn some strange looks from the people around him._

_"...and haunted by what might have been."_

_At a bar downtown, Jemma lazily sipped at her glass of beer as her eyes were glued to the book she laid out on the bar. All the bad parts of her family were now out in the open, including some very personal things about her own childhood. She wasn't exactly happy to know that her battle with depression and alcoholism was now public knowledge. She took a long swig of her drink and sighed heavily._

_"We all wanted to be loved by a man incapable of giving love."_

_In the apocalypse, Five had been able to find a copy of her book from a collapsed library. A copy that hadn't been badly burned during the catastrophe that had killed off the entire planet's population. He honestly wasn't surprised at how horrible their lives had turned out to be. Though he was surprised that Vanya had decided to write a biography like this. Everyone must have been pissed about that._

_"Our father never missed an opportunity to remind me that I was ordinary."_

_Reginald Hargreeves also received a copy of his ordinary daughter's book. Of course, he hadn't bought it himself. Vanya had sent it to him. The message; 'Dad, I thought, why not? -V' was written on the first page. However, Reginald didn't even turn to the first chapter. Instead, he left the book on a shelf in the living room where it would remain untouched by the man. _

_"A hard thing for a little girl to hear. If you're raised to believe nothing about you is special, if the benchmark is extraordinary, what do you do if you're not?"_

_Eventually, the sales for Vanya's book started to become less and less and people lost interest in it. The scandalous factor about the untold story of the mysterious Number Seven had lost its edge and people, more or less, moved on. So Vanya had to move on as well. She may have pissed off her family by revealing such private information about their lives to the public, but she felt like it was her right to do it if she wanted. After all, it was her childhood as well._

* * *

**TODAY**

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." Vanya cursed as she ran as fast as she could towards the auditorium where she should have been over ten minutes ago. She was running late for her orchestra practice and knew that she would be in trouble if she didn't hurry up. The ordinary woman eventually made it through the doors only to find that the group had already started to practice without her. "Shit."

She hurried over to her spot as quick and quiet as possible as they continued to play without acknowledging her. Though as she got out her violin she made a little too much noise which caused the conductor to stop.

Vanya looked up with apprehension and apologized in a timid voice, "Um... I'm so sorry I'm late."

"I hadn't noticed," the conductor cleared his throat. A tense silence enveloped the group as Vanya continued to get her violin situated before the conductor tapped his baton on his stand. "From the top." The beautiful music then started again as Vanya watched the first chair violin, Helen Cho, begin her solo. Something that Vanya wished she would be able to do.

* * *

At the academy, Allison leaned against the wall behind Luther as she showed him what she had found on the tapes that Pogo had shown her. The taped replayed the final moments of Reginald's life as he collapses onto his bed as Grace walked back towards his door.

"Play it again," Luther said.

Allison shook her head with her arms crossed over her chest, "we've watched it over and over, Luther. It's the same every time."

Luther just sighed heavily as he tried to comprehend this new piece of evidence. Now that he had seen this, he knew that there was no way their father's death was just an accident or natural. It replayed again and he tried to see if there was anything distinctive in the grainy footage that would show exactly what had happened, "er... What is she doing?" He stammered out to Allison. "The tea. Did she poison him?"

"Uh, I don't know."

Luther turned to her, "Where did you find this?"

"I was looking at old footage of us as kids, and I saw the tape just sitting there."

"Yeah, Dad must have started using the security system again." Luther sighed out and started to explain, "He was getting more and more paranoid. He thought people were out to get him. Well... I guess maybe he was right."

This proves that their father's death was no way natural and that their mom may have had something to do with it. As much as Luther didn't want to admit it, Grace may have killed their father that night. It isn't clear exactly how or why she would do it, but they needed to find out.

A tense moment of silence passed over them before Allison shook her head in disbelief. "But mom? I mean, she's not capable of..." She stared at Luther and received an apprehensive look from him. Both of them were uncertain about this. "Is she?"

* * *

The sizzling of eggs and a light humming came from the android who was cooking breakfast for two of her children. Allison and Luther sat at the table. They shared a look with each other as their mother continued to cook breakfast for them. Both of them were slightly unnerved by her unbothered attitude ever since the funeral of their father.

"Mom?" Luther asked, "we need to ask you some questions about the night that Dad died. Do you remember anything?"

Grace slowly turned around to face them, "Of course. Sunset, 7:33 pm. Moon was waxing crescent, dinner was cornish hen, wild rice, and carrots."

Luther cut her off, "No. no, uh... later that night. In his bedroom. Did you go and see him?"

Grace seemed to think about how to respond for a second before smiling widely at the two, "I don't recall." She then turned back to her cooking as though that was the end of the conversation.

Seeing that they weren't really getting anywhere with her, Luther looked at Allison and silently gestured for her to speak as well. Allison, though reluctant, went along with it. "Were you ever... I don't know, angry with Dad?"

Grace scrapped the pan with more strength then she should have at the question. Though she didn't respond to the question right away, which threw up red flags. "Your father was a good man." She explained after she finally turned to them, "A kind man. He was very good to me."

Her wide smile was disturbing, to say the least. "Yes, but after we all left, it must have been difficult."

"Oh, there were days. You kids kept me oh so busy, and then..." She abruptly cut herself off as she stared off into space. That wasn't good. Her behavior was beyond concerning the two suspicious siblings.

"What?" Luther asked.

"Mom," Allison said, "what were you gonna say?

"Eggs are ready!" She exclaimed with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm and placed down the plates of two eggs and one piece of bacon that looked like a smiley face. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now, eat up. Both of you."

A few light footsteps then came from the stairs as a head of short blond hair popped out from the doorway and into the kitchen. "Morning," Jemma greeted with a small grunt. The obvious signs of a hangover were present in her slumped appearance. Though they would disappear in about an hour or two. Thank God for her fast metabolism.

She walked over to her siblings and mother and noticed the uncertain looks on their faces. "Oh, Jemma! I'll make you breakfast," Grace exclaimed and turned to make another plate of eggs and bacon for the woman.

Jemma nodded her head and plopped down on the chair next to Allison. She eyed her brother and sister as they watched their mother with narrowed eyes. "Everything okay?" She asked with pursed lips.

Luther and Allison shared a look with each other. Should they tell her about what they found? Jemma was their sister and she should get to know about what had happened to their father... However, maybe they should hold off on telling her. She was a tad bit more _sensitive_ than the others and they didn't know how she would react to their findings. Besides Diego, she was also close to Grace so they already figured that she would not want to believe them.

"Yeah, of course," Luther cleared his throat before taking a bite of his eggs. Allison made sure to keep herself from looking at their sister lest she somehow gives themselves away before they need to.

Jemma hummed while looking at the two of them with a calculating stare. Though her suspicious looks and thoughts were broken when a glass of orange juice was placed in front of her. The blonde smiled widely, "Thanks, mom!"

* * *

Sirens drifted into the destroyed clothes store as red and blue lights danced across the parking lot. After someone had heard the commotion in the clothing store last night, the police had been called to check it out. Which was why over a few dozen officers were scouring the destroyed building for clues to what happened.

Among the officers were Detective Eudora Patch and, unsurprisingly, Diego. He may not be allowed there, but it seemed like the others at the scene were willing to look past it for now.

With that being said, Diego was currently looking at some of the bullet casings that had been left by the shooters. Eudora walked over to him after talking to another officer and sighed. "Do you seriously still not understand the chain of custody? If you touch it, I can't use it."

"Let me save you some time running ballistics." Diego said as he stood up with one of the casings in hand, "These nine-millimeters haven't been manufactured since 19--"

"1963. Odd, I know." Eudora cut him off, "Matching casings were found at a murder scene last night. Ishmael's Towing."

Diego raised an eyebrow at that information, "The driver?"

"Found him hanging from the ceiling. Looks like he must have known something after all." The image of what she had found at the business last night. It was quite a horrific sight to see. The older tow truck driver had been chained up to the ceiling with obvious signs of torture. Whatever had started to happen in her city, it was going to not only be difficult to find out what had happened, but certainly frustrating.

"It's a shame nobody told you to go talk to him," Diego commented. 

The detective rolled her eyes at him. She honestly had no idea how she dealt with Diego without shooting him in the foot. "In the span of twenty-four hours, I've had attacks in three different places across town. Whatever this is, whoever this is, they're not slowing down. So, if you really give a shit and you've got any fresh ideas, I'm all ears."

The vigilante smiled knowing that she would now hear him out. It's a shame it took a few more shootings for it to happen, but he'll make due. "The guy's kid, in the doughnut shop?"

Eudora nodded her head, "I've got units tracking the extended family in case anyone goes after him."

"Well, this place must have surveillance footage."

"No, it doesn't exist." The detective said, "The first unit on the scene clocked two shooters fleeing the premises, wearing, get this, creepy kids' masks."

Diego stared at her for a moment with wide eyes at the tidbit of information. Weird. He chuckled, "The city is really going to shit, huh?"

Eudora scoffed at the super-powered man, "Coming from the guy dressed in spandex?"

"It's not spandex, it's leather." Diego denied before smiling cheekily, "And you used to like it. A lot, if I recall."

Eudora groaned unhappily at the reminder of that. "God, please unremember that."

Diego smirked, "Etched into the data bank, Eudora."

"And we're done." She rolled her eyes and started to walk away from the vigilante.

"Yeah, well, you go fill out your forms while I go hunt these animals down. And, Detective," Diego called out, "I do give a shit." With that, Diego made his way out of the building to start his search. Eudora couldn't help herself but smile at his retreating figure before turning around herself to leave.

Eudora's partner, Chuck Beeman, walked over to her with a chuckle as he pointed after Diego. "I still can't get over the fact that you two used to--"

"Not another word, Beeman." She grunted as she walked off, "Not another damn word."

* * *

After practice, Vanya was just as unsatisfied as normal. The practice was like the rest before them. No matter how hard Vanya tried to show what talent she had, she was always pushed aside. Third chair wasn't exactly where she wanted to be, but she had to deal with it. However, it didn't give her many opportunities to show what she was really capable of.

Though at the moment, she was entering the bathroom. As she approached the sinks, she found the first chair of the violin section, Helen Cho. The Asian woman was quite pretty with long black hair and clear skin. She was just about everything that Vanya had wanted to be. While Helen was chosen to be the best violin player, Vanya was, more or less, told that she wasn't as good as she believed. It may be said that Vanya most likely admired her for her talent, and wish to be like her.

"Helen..." Vanya started off sheepishly as she approached the Asian woman. "You were great today. Really, really great."

Helen barely spared her a glance, "Thanks."

Vanya continued on, "It's those runs in the Stravinsky. I've been hacking at them for weeks, and you just make--"

"Make them look easy?" Helen cut her off and sighed in annoyance. "What's your name again?"

She blinked for a second before stuttering out her name, "Vanya."

"Vanya. And how many years have you been stuck at third chair?" Vanya stared at the woman with wide eyes. Helen just sighed at the blatant confusion from Vanya, "At a certain point, it's not about practice. It's whether you've got something special. And maybe you just... don't." It was obvious that her words were affecting the ordinary woman. Who wouldn't be affected by someone saying that they weren't actually good at what they love to do? "You can put in your ten thousand hours, or... you can go find something you're actually passionate about and stop slogging away at Stravinsky like a scared thirteen-year-old. Think it over." Helen finished before grabbing her violin case and leaving.

Vanya was left by herself as she mulled over Helen's words. 

* * *

Cha-Cha winced as she used a hair curler to cauterize the wound that she had sustained from their fight with Number Five. That little asshole had used a trowel to slice into her upper arm, and the assassin was not happy about that. She has sustained many injuries in her line of work, but she was quite annoyed with this one. Not only was it done by a kid, but it was a kid with _superpowers_! Powers that they were not told about. She would have definitely liked to have a heads up about that when they were tasked with killing the rogue assassin.

Hazel, lucky enough to not get any injuries during their fight, was lounged on one of the beds in the motel. He was flipping through reality shows on the television with mild interest.

Cha-Cha fixed her shirt and walked over to her partner, "I don't understand how you can watch this crap."

"You don't find it interesting," Hazel asked as he motioned to the television, "how ordinary people live their lives? They're agonizing over kitchen cabinets as if the entire fate of the universe rests on whether they choose azure blue or asparagus green."

"And your point is?" Cha-Cha raised an eyebrow.

Hazel shrugged his shoulders and munched on some snacks, "Sometimes there's beauty in the mundane, you know?"

To be honest, Hazel somewhat craved having such a simple life that normal people had. Worrying about bills, taxes, a normal job seemed to be appealing to him. Instead of having to constantly look behind his back and killing people who didn't really seem all that bad. Hazel didn't like the killing part that went into his job, but he went with it. After all, it paid well enough. 

The woman scoffed and motioned around the room, "Well, then, this is the most beautiful room I've ever seen."

There was then a strange sound emanating from the other room. The two entered the bathroom and found that HQ had sent a message to them. Opening the tile in the shadow wall, Hazel opened up the small compartment and opened up the small cylinder that held the message from the higher-ups in it.

"Seven percent reduction in payment due to job delay. Further reduction every 24 hours until job completion. That is just..." Hazel groaned in frustration as he crumpled up the message. "I mean... It's only been one lousy day. Let's see 'em get out from behind their desks, get their hands dirty for once. Damn lazy bastards."

Cha-Cha tilted her head, "Are you done?" She was just as frustrated about this as Hazel. However, she was more level headed about it.

Hazel sighed heavily as he collected himself, "Yeah." 

"Well, let's get back out there and kill this little shit."

* * *

"Jesus Christ!" Five looked up to find his blonde sister watching him with wide eyes as she came into his room. Jemma had just been heading back to her room to change clothes when she passed by Five's room. Only she wasn't expecting to see her young-looking brother stitching up his upper arm with blood dripping from a wound that he must have gotten from being shot at.

Five groaned but continued on with his work, "go away Jemma."

"Go away? _Go away_?!" Jemma stormed into the room with her voice rising in pitch, "What the hell Five?"

"You don't have to be concerned with this."

His monotone attitude with his own injury disturbed her. Why did he think that him getting hurt wasn't a big deal? First off, she wanted to know _how_ he got hurt. Second, she wanted to know _who _had done this, so she could pay them back for hurting her brother who had just reappeared after seventeen years. "Uh, no. You're my brother and you're hurt, so I am going to be concerned! What the hell happened?"

"You don't need to know," Five rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Jemma stared at him in disbelief and came further into his room, much to his dismay. She took a loud gulp from her bottle and looked at him with hazy yet alarmed eyes. Five observed that she wasn't too far from any sort of alcohol. It had only been a few days, but he had almost always seen her with some whiskey or beer or something that contained alcohol. Though it wasn't like he cared all that much. "Does this have to do with the... _apocalypse_?"

Five paused for a moment and looked up at her. So she was paying attention when he talked about it the other day. Honestly, he thought that she was going to be just like Klaus and focus more on trying to get her next drink than what he had to say. Though he should have expected her to not be exactly like Klaus. He vaguely knew what Jemma had gone through emotionally while he was in the future, but she must have not changed completely since he last saw her as a kid. She was just as much as a worrywart now as she was back then.

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't."

"Oh, no." She groaned out and plopped herself down on the floor where she sat with her legs crossed. She wasn't drunk yet and barely buzzed which meant she was sober enough to properly process what was happening. It also meant she could talk a bit clearer about the topic at hand easier. She had planned on maybe getting drunk before heading back over to her apartment. However, now she had to worry about what exactly Five had been getting up to ever since he got back. "It does."

Five disregarded her and put a bandaid over his wound. "You should just go back to drowning in your alcohol, Jem."

Jemma resisted the urge to flinch at his rude tone. "No, no, no. No, I'm not going to."

"Don't you have something else to be doing?"

"Well, I was going to maybe see Vanya. She's been a bit... upset since the funeral."

“Then go check on her already." Five rolled his eyes as he started to put his uniform back on, "pretty sure you both live together, right?”

Jemma nodded her head as she pursed her lips as sadness seemed to well up in her eyes. “We do, but Vanya doesn’t like it when I’m drunk so I usually stay somewhere else.”

“You? Drunk?” The idea of his precious sister, one of the most innocent people who apologized every time she punched someone, being inebriated was baffling. Ever since he had read about how she had gone down a path of depression and could understand why someone who turn to alcohol for it. However, Jemma had far too much emotion and ended up being coming addicted, much to their family's dismay. Though seeing it with his own eyes was... almost upsetting.

Jemma seemingly caught onto his thoughts by the look plastered on his face. “Things’ve been shit, Five.” She started with a sad sigh while running a hand through her short hair. “Things have gone downhill and, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve all changed, mostly for the worst.” Jemma scoffed lazily, “I mean; I’m an alcoholic, Klaus is a junkie, Diego’s a brooding idiot, Luther’s been stuck on the moon for nearly five years, Allison’s life is falling apart, everyone hates Vanya and,” She sighed before gulping, “Ben’s dead.” She allowed her sorrow to swallow her completely like a tidal wave and pull her down further into depression. She brushed it off though and took a swig of her drink, “and now you're telling me the world's going to end?” Five stared at his sister with a blank expression before nodding his head, “_Fan-fucking-tastic._" She threw her head back and downed the remainder of her drink.

"Well," he pulled on his blazer and grabbed the duffle bag that held Delores in it. "Just go back home or something, Jem. Forget we even talked about this."

"What, Five-" She watched as he opened up his bedroom window and climbed out of it without saying anything else. She huffed at his retreating figure and glared at nothing in particular. "He's become a complete ass!"

Outside on the fire escape, Five climbed down to the alleyway where he was hoping to make a quick getaway. Having Jemma find him in his room with his injury was not something he was happy that had happened. If anything, it was extremely annoying. However, he hoped that talking to her would be all that he would be running into. Yet it seemed like the universe was truly against him.

"Damn it, where's Dad's stuff?" Klus exclaimed as he rummaged through the dumpster he had thrown the papers he had taken the other day in. 

Above him, Ben sat on the fire escape watching his brother wallow through garbage trying to find what he had thrown out for some money. "Can we go see a movie or something?" Ben asked though Klaus was the only one who could actually hear him, "or the ocean?"

"Shut up!" Klaus groaned, "I'm trying to find whatever... priceless crap was in that priceless box so that Pogo will get off my ass!"

Five climbed down the ladder as he watched his brother seemingly talk to air. "I'd ask what you're up to, Klaus, but then it occurred to me... I don't care."

"Hey!" Klaus laughed at the arrival of his other brother, "you know there are easier ways out of the house, buddy?"

"This one involved the least amount of talking." Five hopped down from the ladder and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Or so I thought."

Klaus leaned over the side of the dumpster and stared down at Five with wide eyes. "Hey, hey, hey, so... You need any more company today? I could, uh... clear my schedule."

Five just scoffed, "looks like you've got your hands full."

"Oh, this? No, no. I can do this whenever. I'm just--" Klaus then fell back into the dumpster and began his rummaging. "I just misplaced something. That's all. Oh!" He popped back up holding half of a glazed donut. "Found it! Thank God!" Klaus then slowly took a bit of it. Why he does the things he does is a mystery to just about everyone. "Delicious."

"I'm done funding your drug habit," Five said before turning around and starting to stock off.

"Come on! You don't-- Maybe I just wanna hang out with my brother. Not you." He commented to their ghostly brother who now sat on the edge of the dumpster. "¡Mi hermano! I love you! Even if you can't love yourself!" As Klaus called out to Five, the boy had jumped into a van for a plumbing company and started to drive it off.

* * *

Now alone, Five sat in his stolen truck across the street from Meritech. He obviously wasn't going to give up on his mission to stop the apocalypse. Even though the prosthetic eye that he had from the future was 

The young-looking assassin then remembered something, "Oh, shit." He opened up his duffle bag and gingerly pullled his life-long companion, Delores, out of it. "Hey. Sorry you were in there for so long, Delores." He paused and then scowled as if the mannequin had said something. "No, I'm not drunk. I'm working." He paused again and listened to Delores. "Yes, it's about the eye thing. This is the place it was made. Or... will be made. We just have to wait."

It appears that during his time in the future, Five had most likely gone crazy. Well, crazy enough to have a conversation with a mannequin who certainly would not actually reply. Honestly, it was quite understandable for him to be like this. After all, he had been alone for decades! He needed to have someone to talk to while living through the aftermath of the apocalypse. Either way, his mental state wasn't within question at the moment. Five just settled in with Delores to start their stakeout of the medical building to hopefully find a clue to the mystery of the prosthetic eye.

* * *

In the academy, Allison and Luther stood in the living room. Luther's bulky figure paced slightly in front of Allison who leaned against the couch as they discussed what they were to do with their mother.

"I don't like this any more than you do, but she's hiding something," Luther said strongly. Number One, ever the suspicious leader, wanted nothing more than to investigate Grace. She obviously is acting weird since their father's death and after finding that tape of what had happened to Reginald, there was no way Luther was just going to let this go.

"Hiding?" Allison asked, "To me, she just sounded confused."

Luther turned to her with conviction burning in his eyes. "Well, uh... You saw the tape. Grace knew what she was doing."

"Grace?" Allison scoffed, "This morning, she was Mom."

"She's a machine, Allison." Luther continued to deny any sort of emotional attachment to the android that had acted as their caretaker their whole lives.

"Who read to us and cleaned up after us and put us to bed." She insisted, "And then we left her here, alone, in this house for 13 years. I mean, no wonder she lost her mind. To be away from your kids?" There was obviously something underneath her words. A sort of sympathy that she was able to connect to with Grace. It obviously had something to do with her own daughter, Claire.

Luther sighed as his voice softened, "Hey, what happened with... Claire? With Patrick? You never told me." 

"Yeah," Allison ground out, "I don't wanna talk about it."

It saddened Luther that she wasn't willing to open up to him about her emotions. They always did that since they were little. It seemed like after all this time, they had grown far apart. "It's just... when we were kids, we used to sit in here and tell each other everything."

"Yeah, and then we grew up." Allison snapped before sighing, "Things got ugly between Patrick and me. Now the court says I have to do this mandatory therapy thing before I can have visitation."

Luther furrowed his eyebrows, "What for?" He stared at her for a short moment before it finally dawned on him. He let out a breath, "You used your power on her." 

"I mean, there were days where she'd have these epic meltdowns." Allison started to explain with a far off look and sat down on the couch opposite to Luther, "And no matter what I said, she wouldn't stop. She was three then, and I... I know that's what three-year-olds are supposed to do. So I said I would do it that one time. Only it wasn't just that one time." Slowly but surely, tears started to collect in her eyes. "I told myself any... parent with my power would do the same. That it wasn't wrong. I just had an advantage. I mean, from the time I was little, I used it to get everything I wanted."

"Mm-hmm."

She continued, "With Dad, with my career... But now, I know nothing in my life was real. So I'm starting over. I just didn't think it would be so hard."

"It'll get easier. Some things just take time."

"Yeah. And some things just stay broken."

Unknown to either of them, the only other sibling in the house was leaning against the wall right outside of the living room. Jemma's eyebrows were furrowed as she listened to their suspicion of Grace and Allison's situation. Of course, Jemma wasn't sure _why_ her siblings were suspicious of their mother and wanted to question them about it. However, she knew that they probably wouldn't tell her.

Jemma likes to say that she was honest with everyone. At least, far more truthful than any of her family. Though that wasn't true, for painfully obvious reasons. Though she at least hoped that her family would be honest with her. There were many times where their father kept them in the dark about things and hide secrets from the, so Jemma had faith that her siblings wouldn't be the same. Yet her faith wasn't enough. Even she wasn't truthful about herself. Hiding her alcoholism and her depression for years from most of her family. At least, her depression had gotten a bit better, but she still had a problem with drinking.

Anyway, that wasn't what was the topic at the moment. What was the topic was the fact that Allison and Luther thought that their mother is hiding something from them. What it could be, Jemma wasn't sure, and it worried her slightly.

Before she could lose herself in her own thoughts, she sighed and plastered a smile on her face. Hiding her own suspicion would be a good idea for the moment, she thought. She would give them a little bit to collect their findings or whatever and give them a chance to tell her eventually. If they don't, then she will ask them about it. However, she can wait for a short while.

She rounded the corner into the living room with a smile as she greeted her siblings. "Hey, guys!"

The cheeriness that she displayed may have been a little too much, however, it didn't tip off Luther or Allison. Jemma was just generically a cheerful person, even when she was drinking. The first thing they would think was that she most likely was drunk. A good enough cover for her at the moment.

"Hi, Jemma," Luther said curtly as Allison quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes.

The blonde turned to her sister, "do you want to come with me to find Vanya?"

Allison tilted her head as the idea caused her to grimace. The last time she saw Vanya, it wasn't that good. After all, she had said some mean things to her the other day. "Why?"

"Oh come on, Ali!" Jemma whined and grabbed the taller woman's arm, "I've got to go to the apartment to get some clothes and I haven't seen her in a day or so, please!"

"Maybe you should go," Luther said to Allison when he thought of something, "bring her back here so we can talk about mom."

Jemma looked at Luther with her eyes narrowing slightly, "What's wrong with mom?"

Luther also narrowed his eyes, though it was more obvious than Jemma, "Why do you think there's something _wrong_ with her?"

"I don't know..."

Allison, seeing the tension growing between Jemma and Luther, clapped her hand together to get their attention. "I guess we can go find her. I've got to apologize to her anyway."

"Okay!" Jemma exclaimed and started to pull Allison out of the living room to head out and find their other sister.

* * *

Vanya ventured down the slightly busy sidewalk in the Bricktown district. After practice, she had started to walk aimlessly around until she found herself in front of Leonard's shop. Imperial Woodwares, it was called. By looking through the windows she could tell that he wasn't there, but that he also did a good job with woodwork. It was slightly impressive.

Just as Vanya came to the conclusion that she should leave, Leonard himself came waltzing over to her. "You're still lookin' for Mr. Puddles," he joked.

She was speechless for a moment before finally being able to stutter out a reply, "I-- I got out of rehearsal and was in the neighborhood, so I thought... I--"

He raised an eyebrow, "Came all the way to Bricktown?" Vanya was obviously a little nervous to be there, much to Leonard's amusement. She shrugged awkwardly before he smirked a little. He then gestured to his shop. "Well, since you're here, you might as well come in."

Seeing all of the things that Leonard had no doubt made, Vanya complimented him, "These are beautiful."

"Ah, thank you." He smiled and took off his coat, "Restoration antiques. It's my bread and butter. But I do play around with other things."

"Like what?" 

He paused for a second and turned back to her. "Oh... I don't know. It's kind of embarrassing. Come on." He then led Vanya to the back of the shop behind a curtain. There, he showed her a few of his other carvings. Most were quite a bit more intricate than those in the front of the shop.

Vanya looked at them all with interest, "You made all these?"

"When I was a kid, my imagination was my escape." He explained with a chuckle, "And, clearly, I never grew up."

"No, it's amazing." It was obvious that he had a passion for this, just like she had a passion for the violin. "Which one is your favorite?"

"Ballerina is kind of my best. Or maybe the duck." He then shook his head jokingly. "Or the other duck. Or the other duck. But there is one you should see." He walked over to a different shelf and grabbed another carving. He then showed it to her, to her amazement.

"Is that...?" She stared in disbelief at the sight of the carving. It was of a woman playing the violin. Obviously meant to be her. It was flattering that he had made this after only knowing her for a short time.

Leonard chuckled slightly, "Okay, so I might have... stayed up last night making this."

"Wow." Vanya breathed out, still stunned, "It's beautiful."

"Thank you." He then held it out for her, "Take it."

"Oh, no. I..."

"I insist. Please. I made it for you." There was a small pause before he continued to speak. However, there was a slight tenseness to his voice that Vanya had missed. "You inspired me." Vanya continued to stare at the gift that he had given her. So she never noticed the carving of a woman, with short hair, appearing to be running, with a domino mask on.

* * *

"This is so bizarre. We've known each other for... two days?" Vanya chuckled as they walked along the sidewalk after exiting Leonard's shop, "I feel like you know me better than anyone in my family."

"Hey," Leonard said as the two stopped to turn towards each other. "This might be a little inappropriate, seeing as I'm your... impressionable young student, but... would you want to have dinner with me tonight? You don't have to if you don't want to."

There was a tone in his voice, a sort of disgruntled tone. Like he almost wanted her to decline his offer. Though why ask if he wanted her to say no? Once again, Vanya missed his tone and nodded her head, much to his slight dismay.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"It's fast..."

"No, I--"

"...I know, but..."

"I'd like that." Vanya finally said, settling it.

"Yeah?" Leonard asked with a tight smile. 

Before either of them could continue talking, they both looked up at the sound of heels clicking on the sidewalk. Surprisingly, it was Vanya's famous sister.

Vanya blinked a few times at her arrival. "Allison?"

"Hey." Allison greeted sheepishly with a small wave. She casted a glace at the man next to Vanya with a calculating and questioning gleam in her eyes.

Vanya gestured to the woman and introduced the two to each other. "Leonard, this is my sister, Allison." 

There was a tense moment as the two smiled politely at each other before Leonard snapped his fingers. "Wait a second, I know you. You were in that movie. You're in the movie, the... You were the lawyer. The tough one in the wheelchair, right?"

Allison smiled bashful at being recognized, "Yeah. Yeah, that was me."

Leonard turned to Vanya, "You didn't tell me your sister was a movie star. Wow!" He then thought of something else that Allison was quite famous for. "You were in that Umbrella thing, too, weren't you?" He pointed at Vanya, "But you weren't in that, were you?" 

Vanya sighed tensely at the remindsr, "No, uh... I was sort of the fifth Beatle of the family, so..."

"I never really did like the Beatles. More of a Stones guy, myself."

They were silent for the moment before Allison cleared her throat, "Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but, uh... could you come back to the house? We're having a family meeting."

"And you guys want me there?" Vanya asked skeptically. Most of the time she wasn't even considered for things like this. Even before she distanced herself from her family. Really the only one who included her in just about everything was Jemma.

"Of course." Allison nodded. "It's about Mom."

That certainly got Vanya to agree to go back home. She turned to Leonard, "I'm so sorry. I--"

"Oh, don't be." He cut her off, though with a sigh of relief, "We'll do a rain check on dinner. Bye." He then turned to leave the two sisters by themselves.

"Thanks." 

Allison pursed her lips as she watched the mystery man walk away, "Who's the guy?"

"He's a..." Vanya tried to come up with something that would describe the man she literally just met yesterday, "just a friend."

Allison raised a suspicious eyebrow, "Friend?"

"No, it's not..." The ordinary woman shook her head as she saw the mischievous look in her sister's eyes. Though she remembered how her last interaction with her sister, she pursed her lips. "Maybe I'm just trying to not separate myself from everything and everyone."

Allison sighed and gulped "I'm... I'm sorry." She started to apologize, "I shouldn't have said those things to you yesterday. I was angry with Patrick, and I... I took it out on you. I'm really sorry. I'm, uh... I'm not good at this whole sister thing."

"I hadn't noticed."

"Ouch." Allison chuckled at Vanya's remark, "Tell me how you really feel."

"Maybe I will," Vanya said with a smirk.

The two chuckled, "Okay!"

"Hey, V," the timid voice of their other sister suddenly sounded as she walked over to them sheepishly. The blonde chuckled, "we didn't find you at the apartment, but I remembered you had practice today."

Vanya smiled slightly at Jemma. She figured that, currently, Jemma was sober. Well, sober enough to be out and about like this which was good. She even looked good with her jeans, light green blouse, converse, and bright complexion. It was quite amazing to see her like this. 

"uh, yeah, I-- Sorry about just leaving you at the academy..."

Jemma waved her hand, "don't worry about it!" Honestly, Jemma wasn't bothered by the fact that Vanya left her the other night by herself. She had been quite drunk so she didn't remember it completely, but she did know that Vanya had been a bit ticked. So while she didn't like the fact that Vanya had just left without saying anything, she has gotten over it.

Vanya was glad that Jemma wasn't bothered by it. So the trio of sisters started to make their way to a restaurant to spend some time together. It was far overdue for the three to finally spend some time together. Though Jemma and Vanya were used to being together. They did share an apartment together, after all. Though they were all ready to spend time together just as sisters should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmm, what's up Leonard? Such a sketchy man you are. Also, yes, Jemma was certainly a mommy's girl as a kid. Considering they do look quite alike, I think she'd be very close to Grace and such. So let me know what you think of this chapter! Until next chapter, my friends.


	8. Home Invasion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG!! Season Two!! AHHHHH!!! I may or may not have watched every episode in one day... Anyway, I got this chapter done finally. Yaaaay! Now that season two is out, I feel like I can get a better understanding of how Jemma fits into the family. I won't say anything about what's going to happen, you know because... like... spoilers. No writing of anything that might spoil season two. We are strictly sticking to season one, I will not hint at anything for season two... I think. I might do it by accident, but hopefully, it won't be too noticeable or spoil anything BIG.
> 
> I'm also going to change up the writing style of this book. When I first started writing it, I had decided to write out every scene that happens in the show, as I think you've noticed. I don't know why I started doing it, but it just happened. Now, all that does is gives me far more to write than I have to. After all, I'm pretty sure you've all see the show so you don't need a reminder as to what actually happens. So I'm changing that up now. I'm going to just write out every episode in its entirety, however, I will exclude the parts that don't involve Jemma. Hopefully, by doing this, chapters will be easier to get out and quicker to write. Anyway, enjoy!

**JEMMA SKIPPED BESIDE HER SISTER AS THEY** strolled down the sidewalk in the bright sun. Her short hair swayed around her cheeks and in front of her electric eyes. The extra pep in her step was most likely due to her being able to be with both of her sisters. After all, it had been over twelve years since all three of them had been together. Jemma, of course, has seen both of them within that time, as she lives with Vanya and she periodically visited Allison, but it hadn't been the _three_ of them together. That's how things had been, especially after Vanya had written her book.

The blonde didn't like the fact that Vanya had written her tell-all book, however, she forgave Vanya at least a little. Well, Jemma wasn't necessarily happy to know that Vanya had spilled every and any secret that was within the family, sans a few, but she's gotten over it. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was really talking about it anymore. The hype behind the book had only lasted at least a few months and Jemma hadn't been bothered by anybody because of it, unlike Allison. Thankfully, Jemma had a quiet life ever since she left the academy which she was perfectly okay with. Doing odd jobs from time to time certainly didn't give her any lasting relationships between her co-workers, unlike being an actress. Imagine it, having cameras constantly shoved in your face wherever you go. Jemma couldn't fathom the idea.

Another factor could be that her metabolism had run through the alcohol she had previously downed. So once again, surprisingly, she was sober! This time she was actually completely okay with it. That was most likely because Jemma had a distraction to focus on. She wasn't worried about the apocalypse for the moment, she wasn't thinking about _him_, and she didn't think about their father's death. Instead, she was high off of the fact that her sisters were finally together, getting along. Sure maybe there was a lingering fact that the world was going to end in a few days, and she had an inkling of regret still poking at her mind, but some sisterly bonding was pushing that all aside.

All that mattered was getting back to the academy. Which reminded her, "Allie?"

Allison turned to her blonde sister, "Yeah?"

"Are you doing to tell us what you and Luther think is wrong with Mom?" Jemma tilted her head in question. The suspicion that she had of her siblings from only about a half-hour earlier had not disappeared in the slightest. It was extremely concerning to hear what they had said about their mother earlier. How could they have any doubt that Mom wasn't caring? Sure, she is just an android, however, they must have seen that she was beyond that now. Especially after witnessing Grace raise them for years and being so human-like, how could they doubt her?

Allison's eyebrows furrowed, "Did I not tell you?"

"I don't think so... If you did, I may have been working through the alcohol." She shrugged her shoulders, "so I might have forgotten."

Vanya and Allison shared a glance with each other. A mutual understanding between the two of them about Jemma. While Vanya was used to this, Allison was not, since she was new to the fact that Jemma was an alcoholic. Thankfully, Jemma had been able to control herself to be at least more sober than usual. Being around family usually had her doing that. 

Even when she saw her family members, more specifically Allison or Diego, she hid her problems from them. She didn't need them to know about her alcoholism because all they would do is worry about her. She was the sibling who always was perceived as innocent, untouched by the trauma that was caused by their father. Which is something she even tried to convince herself of. Every one of them had their issues, but not Jemma. She's the glue that tried to keep her family together, and if the glue was damaged or ineffective, then the entire family would fall apart. Jemma couldn't allow that, so she hid her problems as much as she could. Of course, she couldn't hide it from Vanya or Klaus since she saw them the most, but as long as she didn't worry them too much then it was okay. Luther didn't need to know or anything because he was on the fucking moon, and Ben was well, _gone_ so he would never know. Diego was someone that she rarely checked upon and even when she did, he made sure to make it brief as he wanted to keep up his lone-wolf persona. Allison was across the country and never physically around for Jemma to see her, so she could hide her problems from her sister easily. Overall, Jemma did her best to hide her problems from everyone she could. Was it a good thing? She wasn't sure, but it didn't matter right now.

Allison cleared her throat, "Well, yeah. We just think that-"

"That she has something to do with what happened to Dad?" Jemma asked airily as she eyed her sister from the side with large eyes.

Vanya looked between her two taller sisters in confusion, "What does that mean?"

The tallest of the three shook her head firmly. "We'll talk about it when we're all together, alright." Her tone spoke with finality which ended their conversation abruptly. So now the trio of sister walked along the sidewalk in silence as they headed back to the academy. The atmosphere around them growing tense as they continued their walk with an awkward feeling surrounding them.

* * *

Now, most of the Hargreeves siblings stood in the main living room with one of the old televisions proped up on the table. The video clip of their father's death playing in front of them. As much as Jemma disliked their father, she couldn't stomach watching the video. Death was something that she hated. The idea of a life ending, being torn away in some way, was so heartbreaking for her. Maybe it was because she had the experience of having someone so close to her die or because she was raised with the idea of killing is necessary for a mission, but either way, she hated it. 

She bit the inside of her cheek as she looked away from the television. Even if they had wanted her to watch it, to witness whatever they thought their mother had done to their father, she couldn't bear to watch it. Her chest hurt at the idea. She had heard what Luther and Allison had insinuated before she had left to get Vanya, but seeing it now just seemed to infuriate her more. Jemma would never want to believe that the woman who had looked after her for nearly two decades had even hurt a fly. So seeing it was just... the worst thing for her.

"I mean, do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?" Vanya asked Luther as they crowded around the television.

The "Leader" rolled his eyes at his powerless sibling. "You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya. Maybe you don't know Grace anymore."

"And you do?" Jemma voiced softly, which barely earned her a glance from Luther. She huffed out through her nose in annoyance, since he had written her off so easily. Klaus placed a hand on her shoulder in silent reassurance which caused some of the tension in her to disperse if only a little. It was a valid question, in her opinion, considering Luther wasn't all that close to Grace, unlike Vanya.

Diego shook his head at Luther's insistence about this. "If he was poisoned, it would have shown in the coroner's report."

"Well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes." Luther harshly exclaimed while pointing at the screen like it was the biggest piece of evidence that he had ever found.

"Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision." Diego casually insulted him before rewinding the tape once again. "Look closer. Dad has his monocle. Mom stands up. Monocle's gone."

Taking a closer look, they found that he was correct. Grace was just taking the monocle from Reginald to clean it like she usually did every other night. This time just ended with a disaster. The real question was; how did she not notice Reginald in distress?

"Oh, yeah!" Klaus exclaimed seeing it as well.

Diego nodded his head in triumph, most likely in satisfaction of proving Luther wrong. The best thing that could ever happen to him. "She wasn't poisoning him. She was taking it. To clean it."

Luther was speechless for a moment before finally collecting his words, "Then where is it? No, I've searched the house including all her things. She doesn't have it."

Diego pursed his lips, "That's because I took it from her. After the funeral."Everyone turned to him in surprise.

"You've had the monocle this whole time?" Allison asked in disbelief as she leaned against one of the pillars, "What the hell, Diego?"

"Give it to me," Luther instantly demanded.

Diego deadpanned, "I threw it away."

"You _what_?"

Deigo started to walk towards his brother with a sneer as he pointed one of his knives at him. "Look, I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit, just like you're doing right now."

"Diego," Luther grounded out through clenched teeth as the two brothers advanced at each other, "you son of a bitch."

Vanya finally stepped in to stop the two of them from possibly fighting, which they all knew they would do. "Hey. No. Calm down." The two continued to scowl at each other as Vanya continued, "Look, I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book. But I do remember one thing he said. Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but... also as a protector."

"What does that mean?" Allison asked.

"She was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy," Vanya explained.

Luther shook his head in thought, "Well, if her hardware is degrading, then... We need to turn her off."

"What if her hardware isn't degrading though," Jemma quickly called out with a paniced hand raised in the air, finally trying to add in her two cents. She tilted her head in thought with large, alarmed eyes, "What if someone just programmed her differently?"

"And who would do that?" The big bafoon asked the blonde with a roll of his eyes. He obviously was not taking what little contribution that Jemma had to the conversation seriously. Like he always did. Jemma opened her mouth to elaborate about what she thought, but Luther cut her off. "Come on, Jemma, think logically for once."

Jemma deflated at being written off by Luther. A bitter taste hit her tongue at his dismissal. Though it wasn't anything new. For some reason, no matter what Luther always valued Jemma's thoughts less than others. He usually does this for just about everyone, sans Allison, as he thought that he was better than everyone just because he is Number One, the Leader of their team. So why would he listen to his siblings? Jemma's opinions was at the lowest of the low, not matter what. Something that she never understood, not matter how many times she tried to.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait." Diego started to protest, "She's not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet. She feels things, I've seen it!"

Luther stood his ground, "She just stood there, Diego, and watched out father die."

"I'm with Luther." Allison said, which surprised no one.

Diego turned to her with a sneer, "Surprise, surprise."

"Shut up."

They then turned to Vanya, both Luther and Diego trying to gage whether she would agree with one of them. "I-- I don't--"

Diego shook his head and dismissed her, "Yeah, she shouldn't get a vote."

"I was gonna say that I agree with you."

"Okay. She should get a vote." Diego said, now that their powerless sister was agreeing with him. He then turned to Klaus, who was leaning against the pillar besides Jemma with a far off look, obviously barely paying attention to the conversation. "What about you, stoner boy? What do you got?"

Klaus looked up in surprise, "Oh, so what? You need my help now? Oh 'Get out of the van, Klaus!' 'Well, welcome back to the van.'"

"What van?" Allison asked as Luther just shook his head, knowing that he was referring to earlier that day.

Luther just scoffed lightly under his breath, "What's it gonna be, Klaus?"

"I'm with Diego, because screw you!" He exclaimed, "And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me." He then hissed at the air, as Ben had disagreed with him.

Diego then turned to his blonde sister. "Jemma?"

"There has to be something wrong with mom," she started as Luther nodded his head, seemingly valuing what she had to say now since she seemed to be siding with him. "But I'm not saying to turn her off okay!" Diego clapped, now thinking that she was siding with him as Luther scoffed. Jemma just shook her head, already knowing that she didn't want to take sides at all. "I don't want to vote on this! Like I said there's more to this, someone could have--"

Seeing that she wasn't going to vote for either side, Diego turned to Luther with a smug smile. "So that's three to two." Jemma threw her hands up, knowing that neither of them were going to listen to what she had to say. Why was she being treated like a child?!

"Wait-" Luther tried to protest but was cut off by Allison.

"Vote's not final yet."

Diego's head snapped into her direction, "What?"

"Five's not here." She said as if it was obvious, "The whole family has to vote. We owe each other that."

Luther agreed, "Right."

"No, we should wait." Vanya piped up. To Diego's dismay, they all came to the same conclusion; they couldn't make a final decision without Five.

Allison, Luther, and Klaus then filed out of the room, seemingly done with the conversation until Five finally voted. As much as they wanted to get this over with, they couldn't really do that with Five not around and Jemma not picking a side. This left Vanya, Diego, and Jemma together who had noticed Grace standing in the shadows of the living room. The trio walked over to Grace who stared at the ground emotionlessly.

"Hey," Diego said softly to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. A softness in his actions that he only ever had for his mother. "How long you been here?"

Grace looked up, now with a smile on her face that as almost unerving considering what they had just been discussing. "You all seem upset. I'll make cookies." She then turned around and left them alone.

After a beat of silence, Vanya spoke up, "Do you ever wonder... All those moments with Mom, the things she said. Like, was it her, or was it really Dad?"

"What are you talking about?" Diego asked as if it was a blaphomous question.

"Well, he built her." She elaborated as Jemma bit her lip in consideration. The idea of their father, _Reginald Hargreeves_, ever caring about anything was a foreign thought. The cold, calculating billionaire didn't have any emotions other than anger, disappointment, or annoyance, in Jemma's opinion. So how could he be expressing his... caring nature through their mother? "And he programmed her to be a mom, to be our mom. Sometimes when I look at her, I just see him."

"I don't." Jemma said stoically which was extremely contradictory to her bubbly personality.

Diego nodded his head in agreement with Jemma, "Maybe that was true at first. But she evolved."

"Well, how do you know?" Vanya asked curiously.

"Because Dad only loved himself."

With that, Diego walked off, leaving Vanya and Jemma by themselves. Anxiety welled inside Vanya which caused her to pull out her pill bottle and pop one in her mouth. Jemma sighed loudly and plastered a faux smile on her face. "Well, I need a drink." She said joyfully trying to distance herself from her depressing thoughts, "you want one too, V?"

Vanya shook her head, "no, but I'll come with you to make sure you don't get drunk."

Jemma whined like a child and bounced away with Vanya trailing behind, "Aw, but that's the whole point!" Overhead, Pogo watched the sisters walked off with a solem gaze.

* * *

The dim bedroom lamp glowed in Jemma's bedroom as she lazily laid on her bed. Night had descended upon the academy as Vanya and Jemma had decided to relax in Jemma's childhood room since the afternoon. Another gulpful of alcohol already running down her throat as Jemma wallowed in her own anxiety. As much as she tried to not show her nervousness or anything around her siblings, Vanya was a different story. Vanya was one of the only people who had seen Jemma at her lowest, so she was allowed to see Jemma's problems even now. Which was why Jemma was perfectly comfortable with having Vanya around as she drank. The blond was almost at the end of her first bottle as Vanya had done her best to try and take it from her. The violinist had given up at some point, knowing that Jemma would not give up her drink no matter what.

Jemma huffed and glanced over at Vanya who sat stiffly in her chair at the small desk by the door. "Turning off Mom just..." Jemma blew a rasbery and groaned in displeasure, "I don't like it, V."

"I know you don't," Vanya agreed, "I don't either."

Jemma stared up at the ceiling with a troubled expression. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts, which was exactly what she didn't want. The whole point of drinking is to slow down her thoughts, to minimize how fast she thought. To mellow her out, to put it lightly. Though that didn't seem to be happening since she was extremely worried about their mom. "She's one of the only good things about our childhood." She said the sad truth with a soft voice, "She may be an android but she's... she's more human than Dad was, you know."

She looked over at Vanya with her pink cheeks and glassy eyes. Vanya nodded her head along with her while slumping down in her seat, "You're right."

"I understand the concern," Jemma stated knowing _why_ Luther and Allison may want to turn off their mother, "but there's something that just doesn't make sense."

Vanya nodded her head along with her. She had noticed what Jemma had said earlier when they were together, which was ignored by the rest of the family. "You said you thought someone messed with her hardware?"

Jemma looked off to the side in thought, "Mom was a protector, yes? Like you said. So how would she just... _not_ help dad? The only way that would happen is if--"

"She was programmed not to," Vanya cut her off, understanding where she was going.

Jemma nodded, "Exactly."

If their mother was a protector, like Vanya remembered, then that meant that she would have saved their father while he was dying. The argument that Luther had made about her hardware deteriorating also didn't make much sense. Sure, she didn't have any kids around anymore to take care of, but she wasn't just meant to be a mother. Reginald designed her to take care of the home and such, so it would only make sense for him to keep her around to take care of mundane things. Not only that, but Pogo would certainly not allow her to deteriorate to the point of her hardware being detirioted. Pogo cared about her, at least more than Reginald might have. So that meant her hardware wasn't broken down but instead tampered with. By who? That was the real question.

"She doesn't seem like she could hurt anyone," Vanya said softly as if the thought of their mother hurting _anyone_ was completely foreign. Which was true. All Grace ever was to them was nurturing, supportive, and just over all motherly. She was the real parent that they had in their childhood. Reginald may have been their father in name, but he certainly didn't act like it. It was kind of funny that a robot was more human-like than Reginald was. Maybe that just proved Jemma's theory that Reginald wasn't actually human. Imagine that!

Thinking back on their childhood, more specifically the very few good parts of it, a thought popped into Jemma's head. She chuckled to herself softly, "Do you remember when I taught you self-defense?"

"Yeah." Vanya said with a raised eyebrow, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. It just poped into my head," Jemma shrugged her shoulders and shuffled on her bed to sit up. She tapped her chin in thought, "I don't know why Dad didn't teach you anything like that."

"I wasn't apart of the team, so it made sense not to train me."

"I still thought it was a good idea."

"Maybe," Vanya chuckled slightly and rubbed her arms as they ached from past injuries, "but it didn't feel like a good idea."

"Oh, you big baby," Jemma giggled loudly, "You only got a few bruises!"

Vanya let out an exhasperated scoff, "A few, try more like a few dozen!"

* * *

**17 YEARS AGO**

_“Jemma, I’m not sure about this…” A thirteen-year-old Vanya shakily breathed out as he stood outside in the courtyard. Her fingers were twisted together nervously as a soft autumn breeze brushed over them. The sun had only a few more minutes to gaze down on the city, which was why the two sisters were out there. It was only a few minutes after Jemma had finished her training for the day and instantly dragged Vanya outside. As risky as it was to go outside without the permission of their father, Jemma was more than willing to risk whatever punishment that came with it. After all, she had a good reason for this._

_The blonde girl just shook her head at her sister's nervousness. “Vanya, it’s important that you learn how to defend yourself. Every one of us can fight even without our powers, except you!”_

_“Thanks," Vanya said sarcastically._

_Jemma shook her head while putting her hair up into a high ponytail. “I didn’t mean it like that. I'm just saying since dad won't teach you how to fight, I will!" She cheered and gently pulled Vanya's to the middle of the courtyard. "I just want to make sure that if you end up in a situation where you have to defend yourself, you'll be ready to.”_

_It didn't make much sense to her as to why Vanya was kept out of training. Well, yes, Vanya didn't have any powers like them, however, she was apart of the family! The Umbrella Academy was well known, and even if the world didn't know much about Vanya being the phantom seventh sibling, there was still a chance of her getting caught in the crossfire. Who's to say that Vanya wouldn't be attacked or something. If that were the case, she should have some sort of simple combat training to keep herself safe. It only made sense._

_Vanya sighed out, slightly uncomfortable, “You don't have to, Jem. If dad finds out about this--”_

_“He won't!" Jemma exclaimed loudly before getting a look from Vanya to quiet down. The blonde cringed with a sheepish smile, "We’ll be quick and make sure that he doesn't see us. And you know I'm pretty fast.”_

_She got into a defensive stance and tried to prompt Vanya to get into the same one. Her eager, vibrant blue eyes seemed to glow in the dim sunlight. As much as Vanya wanted to protest, she had to admit that it was at least somewhat of a good idea. After all, it wasn't like anyone else was going to show her how. Vanya sighed out in reluctance but also got into a fighting stance, though it was not as confident as Jemma's, “Alright.”_

_“That's the spirit!" Jemma jumped in joy before her expression hardened into one of determination, "Now, let's start!”_

* * *

At the memory of their secret training sessions, the two women laughed with each other. It was a moment, one little moment, in their abysmal childhoods that seemed fun. The two of them bonded even more with each other during their sessions. A moment when they could act like kids, more or less. Not only that, but the two weren't caught. Well, they weren't caught by their father. Ben had found out at one point, completely by accident, however, he would never rat them out. Even if he had the thought to, Jemma could easily just flash him her puppy-dog eyes and he'd be putty in her hands.

The sudden reminder of her best friend dampened Jemma's mood instantly. She quieted down while staring down at the bottle in her hands. The amber liquid glaring back at her heatedly with its silent repetitive taunts. 

There was suddenly a constant popping sound that resonated from somewhere else in the house. A sound that caused Jemma's blood to freeze at the familiarity of it. Vanya stared at the door as worry started to creep up in her chest, "Did you hear that?"

"Gunfire?" Jemma asked in confusion before abruptly standing up from her seat on her bed. That was a sound that she certainly could not forget, as she grew up having guns fired at her on a near-daily basis. Already having a bad feeling, she points to Vanya as sternly as she could. Though that was a bit hard when she is both not intimidating and slightly buzzed. "Stay here."

She then zoomed out of the bedroom to head to where they heard the sound of fighting. The speedster found herself in the middle of the foyer where she was able to see two figures standing in the living room. In their hands were a pair of guns, which obviously meant that they were the ones who were shooting. For what reason they were here, Jemma had no idea. However, they couldn't just come into her family's home and shoot up the place without thinking that they would defend themselves. They had made a mistake coming into this house, she'd make that clear to them.

The figures fired more shots, aiming at one of the couches where someone must have been hiding. Jemma jumped on the back of the bigger attackers as soon as she got close enough to try and stop him from shooting anymore. Meanwhile, as the hail storm of bullets stopped now that the two assailants knew they were being attacked, Luther came out to take on the smaller of the two, who had a bunny-like mask on. Allison also came out from the shadows to help Jemma fight against the big guy who had a bear mask on.

They scuffled around for a bit which included Jemma being thrown off the bear-man's back and landing harshly on the ground. The wind had been knocked out of her as she groaned at the flare of pain that racked her back. She was certainly a nit rusty when it came to fighting. After all, she hasn't been in a fight since she was in her teens at least. Though the bear-man got the upper hand when he grabbed Allison and held her in the air by the throat and stood with his foot on top of Jemma's throat as well.

Diego jumped out from behind his hiding spot and started to beat on the guy as well. "Let them go!"

Luther finally finished with the bunny-masked attacker, came back into the fray, and helped Diego with punching the bear-man which forced the man to let go of Allison and step off of Jemma. The super-strong Luther then grabbed the attacker and threw him effortlessly through the air away from them and into the foyer. 

"Who the hell are these guys?" Allison asked out breathlessly while helping Jemma to her feet. 

Luther turned to Diego, barely out of breath, "You're welcome."

"I was doing fine," Diego exclaimed, not willing to admit that he may have needed some help.

"Oh, yeah, you really had them--"

Diego huffed, "Ever hear of a rope-a-dope?"

Growing fed up, Jemma shouted at them with a scratch voice, "Stop bickering you two!" She then let out a small yelp as she ducked down along with her other siblings to avoid the bullets that were now being shot at them.

"Get out of here now!" Luther called out as he ushered Allison out who had a hold on Jemma as well, "Go!"

"Luther, go!" Diego shouted out as he went off in a different direction.

There was a moment of silence that passed through the academy. With the bear-man, Hazel, having lost his gun and the bunny-woman, Cha-Cha, going after the siblings, there as a short moment of uneasy stillness.

"Hello?" It was broken by the soft voice of the powerless Hargreeves sibling.

As she hid around the corner from the attackers, Jemma could faintly hear the sound of Vanya as she descended the main stairs. Obviously, she had bypassed Jemma's stern warning to stay in her room and decided to check out everything that was happening. With her vision still a tad bit blurry from the alcohol that was still running through her system, Jemma cursed, "Shit, Vanya."

"Guys? Is everyone okay?" Vanya continued to call out as her anxiety started to increase. She walked towards the living room to investigate and saw that the room was in disarray. "Hello? Guys?" 

The quietness was unsettling to her. Though it only lasted for a little bit longer when Hazel came out from nowhere with a medieval flail in his hands. He used it to try and attack Vanya who ducts just at the last second. Hazel goes back in to try and hit her again, only for her to block it and try to get in her own hit. However, her little punch did nothing to the hefty man who was able to backhand her easily and throw her onto the table.

"Hey, asshole," Luther called out from behind Hazel before he could attack Vanya again. Seeing that Luther was a bigger target than the meek Vanya, Hazel set out to attack him.

As Luther and Hazel went at each other, both surprisingly a good match for each other, Jemma sped into the living room to find Vanya laid out on the coffee table. Seeing her frazzled sister, Jemma rushed over to her and grabbed her hand to pull her up. "Come on!" Jemma then sped the both of them into a hiding spot in one of the hallways, away from the fighting. The landing wasn't as graceful as Jemma had hoped, seeing as she was still being hindered by her slight drunkenness. She had hoped that the adrenaline would have helped clear it out as well as her speedy metabolism, but it seemed like she was going to need more than just a few minutes for that to happen. "Stay here, V, okay?"

Vanya nodded her head shakily at Jemma's command. As much as she wished she could help her siblings, she knew that she couldn't really do anything because she was powerless. 

Jemma took a moment to check Vanya and make sure that she didn't have any injuries, though she did see the beginnings of a bruise starting to form on her cheek. Filing that away for the moment, Jemma then ran out of the small alcove where Vanya would hide for the time being. She zoomed back into the living room to find that Hazel had thrown Luther to the ground who was now groaning in pain. She growled, "Hey, care bear!" Hazel turned around to find the petite blonde glaring at him from behind her bangs. Her blue eyes glowing with rage was the only thing he saw before her blurred form started to attack him. He could barely do anything as a flurry of punches came at him at such speeds that he couldn't keep up with. While they weren't exactly the strongest punches that he had ever received, having so many thrown at him like this was causing him quite a bit of pain.

This continued on for only a few minutes, as Jemma tried to knock the behemoth of a man down. Jemma was so caught up in her punches that she didn't notice the leg that swiped out to knock her feet from under her. She gasped as she fell to the ground at normal speed and earned a powerful kick to the gut and then to the head which had her yelping loudly in pain. Hazel, having handled the little speed-puncher, then lumbered off to find Cha-Cha leaving the pair of hurting siblings in the foyer.

"Damn," Jemma grounded out through her clenched teeth as she fought the pain, "I'm out of practice."

"Luther! Jemma!" Allison called out as she and Diego found their two siblings on the ground. Allison rushed over to Luther while Diego went over to Jemma. "Come on, Luther, get up."

"Everything is spinning," Jemma grunted as she was helped to her feet by her knife-throwing brother.

"Come on, Jem."

Once all of them were standing up, Jemma and Luther both using the other two as crutches, they glanced up at the second floor to see Cha-Cha staring back down at them. With the knife that Diego had thrown at her prior, she cut the cord that connected the chandelier to the ceiling. 

"Get out of the way!" Luther called out as the light fixture started to fall and pushed his siblings away. Diego fell with Jemma and made sure to protect her as they fell while Allison was pushed to the other side.

"Luther!" Allison shouted out before Luther was crushed by the chandelier. Though it would take more than that to hurt Luther, considering he was built like a giant. So he started to get up, only for his coat to start being ripped off to show off what was underneath it in the pale light.

Diego stared at him in disbelief, "Holy shit."

Now on display for everyone to see, it was revealed that Luther had the upper body like an ape. Something that no one was really expecting to see underneath his large coat. Even Jemma was in surprise as she may or may not have a concussion. In embarrassment, Luther rushed off to most likely his room, leaving behind his confused and frazzled siblings.

The speedster, still on the ground, groaned while Diego made sure that she was alright, "God, things are getting weird, even for us."

* * *

"Who were those people?" Vanya asked as she sat on one of the couches as Allison handed her and handkerchief to clean up her face.

Besides her, Jemma laid on the couch with half-lidded eyes as she held an ice pack ot her head. Even if Jemma had been raised to be a super-hero, she was still the most susceptible out of the family to get bruised. She wasn't sure why, but she was the easiest out of her siblings to get bruises. Suppose that's why they viewed her as the most fragile out of them all, sans Vanya of course. There was no doubt going to be bruising on her stomach and most likely her head after this. Perhaps she should consider training again since this has proven that she's completely rusty when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting.

"I don't know." Allison said while sitting across from the two, "But we are lucky to be alive. You sure you're okay?" Vanya just nodded her head silently, more worried about her siblings than anything else. Allison turned to Jemma with the same concerned look. Obviously, she didn't like seeing anyone, especially the sweet Jemma, in pain like this. "Jemma?"

The blonde sighed out though it sounded like it hurt her, "I should be fine, Allie."

The trio of sisters then noticed Diego pacing behind them. He was agitated by something, which they all weren't sure what it was, assuming that it was just about the attack. "Diego?" Vanya asked.

"What are you still doing here?" He asked sharply.

Vanya stared at him, "I'm just trying to help."

"No, you could've been killed." He shouted out in what was most likely a combination of frustration, anger, and worry. "Or gotten any of us killed. She is a _liability_."

Vanya shook her head at being called that. She knew that she wasn't much of a help, but at least thought that her siblings wouldn't belittle her to the point of being a hindrance to them. She turned to her sisters, "Allison? Jemma?"

Jemma spoke up first and shifted in her seat, though it may have pained her to do so, "He's worried, V. We all are worried about you." They heard Diego scoff at that, trying to make it seem like the reason he said that wasn't because he cared about their sister.

"I think what he's trying to say is that this kind of stuff is dangerous." Allison explained, "You're just--"

"Not like you," Vanya said emotionlessly.

"No, that's not what I--" Allison tried to salvage it as her sister got up and shuffled out of the room. She tried to go out after her, "Vanya, wait."

"Let her go." Diego called out causing her to pause, "It's for the best."

Growing fed up, Jemma turned to her brother sharply and scowled. The sight of her angered expression threw off Diego for a moment as it was extremely rare to see Jemma angry like this. Her lip was curled up in a slight sneer as she stood up from her seat on the couch. "Maybe you think that, but she's our sister. I want to make sure that she's alright, unlike you apparently."

She then hobbled out of the living room after Vanya, to the protest of Allison. She got over to Vanya just as she was pulling on her coat. "Vanya, hey, look are you sure that you're okay?"

The violinist glanced up at Jemma and shook her head. The expression of worry and concern on her face was something that she saw often, perhaps too often. As much as Vanya appreciated the care that Jemma always had for her, it was getting on her nerves at the moment. "I'll be fine Jemma, just sit back down."

Jemma sighed, "If you want to leave we can head to the apartment--"

"No," she harshly answered back before clearing her throat, "I want to be by myself. Besides, you should rest."

Jemma stared at her uncertainly, "Oh. Right, yeah, just call me later alright? I just wanna make sure you're okay."

"Yeah, I know." With that, Vanya went off to collect her things so she could leave that academy. She left behind a slightly beaten Jemma who was more than worried about her and everything that had happened. Though Vanya was right, Jemma should rest so her injuries heal as fast as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, it took a little bit to try and get back into Jemma's head to write this. I feel like I've changed up my writing style just a bit since I last wrote this if that makes sense. Either way, I think I did pretty okay with this chapter. I hope that the new way of me writing only the scense with Jemma in it is easy to understand. It makes it so much easier for me to write and will probably mean it's easier to get chapters out quickly. I hope you guys liked it! Let me know what you thought! Until the next chapter!


	9. Man on the Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Hope you're all safe and healthy! I finally finished writing up this chapter last night, and I gotta say, it actually is so much easier to write full episode chapters with the scenes that only involve Jemma. It's definitely less of a hassle than writing out every single scene from the show. Anyway, I hope this chapter is good, enjoy!

**THE SUN SHINED THROUGH THE WHITE CURTAINS **inside of Jemma's tiny childhood bedroom. Her blue eyes opened up slowly and squinted against the light as she groaned. The injuries that she had sustained from the night before were almost nearly gone. She still had some yellowing on her stomach from the kick she received and her head had stopped spinning so much, but overall, she was feeling better. Jemma hadn't felt this sore in quite a long time, and it brought about a sort of nostalgia to her. It reminded her of the missions she went on with her family, the way Vanya helped patch her up after them, and the lectures she got from Dad about what she did wrong on those missions. Ah, memories.

She sat up from her bed stiffly and tried to get off of it with as much care as she could. Jemma didn't want to aggravate her wounds any more than she needed to. The blonde grabbed her phone to take a glance at it and saw that it was around nine in the morning, which is earlier than she thought she would wake up. It was a good thing that she didn't really have a job, or she surely would have been fired with the number of times she woke up after noon. Perks of doing odd jobs every once in a while around the city. Of course, that also meant she was a bit strapped for cash sometimes since her income was so sporadic, but it usually works out. Plus it helped that she shared an apartment with Vanya, which takes some of the pressure off of her to rent or buy her own place. Though that didn't mean she felt bad about being a burden to Vanya, she knew she was a large burden to her sister. Jemma never thought she'd be a freeloader, but her she is. 

She hobbled her way out of her bedroom and carefully made her way down the many flights of stairs to head to the kitchen. Though just as she stepped off the last step and into the foyer, Jemma felt like there was something off. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked around to see if something was wrong. Though it wasn't like there was anything wrong in the room, it was still a mess from last night. The whole house was still trashed after that mess of a fight. There was still a tense feeling in the air for Jemma. Something was _missing_... What was it? It was on the top of her tongue bite she couldn't quite get it. 

The blonde brushed it off for the time being and made her way to the kitchen to make herself some food. "Klaus!" She called out knowing that he would hear her. "I'm making breakfast!" She wasn't sure if her family had eaten already or not, but Klaus was always down to eat her food no matter what.

Jemma made it into the kitchen and started to look around for something to cook up. She idly searched the fridge and cupboards and decided on cooking up some sausages and french toast. So as she fried up the sausages, she waited for the bombardment of her druggie brother to bust into the room. Though while the sausages sizzled in the pan and she started to soak the bread in eggs, there was no shout from Klaus as he jumped into the room. She glanced over her shoulder to take a look at the stairs with confused eyes. _Where's Klaus? _She thought to herself and flipped over the toast in the pan, _he'd usually be down here by now. Actually, I haven't even seen him since before the fight last night..._

Before Jemma could dwell on the possibility of her missing best friend, a heavy set of boots came lumbering down the stairs. As she flipped over the slices of toast in the pan, she found that it was Diego who had come down the stairs.

"Diego," Jemma greeted him with a bright smile, well as bright as she could get without aggravating the healing bruise on her cheek. They definitely needed to cheer up a bit after last night, which she knew was her job. Considering she was the bubbly sibling and always tried to make her family happy, she always saw it as her responsibility, even if she wasn't happy herself. She could see the way that his eyes seemed to be drooped in the corners and were holding far too much sadness, Jemma could tell that something was wrong. And it wasn't just the bruising from the fight that he might have gotten. She put down her cooking utensils and turned to face him fully. "Are you okay?"

He huffed, almost sadly, and lumbered past her. Though before he could actually leave he paused and thought for a moment before slowly turning to his sister. He slowly approached her and brushed a strand of her blond hair from her face, right over a nasty bruise. "I should be asking you that."

Jemma just continued to smile and pushed his hand away, trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. "I heal fast, remember, don't worry about me."

"Still must sting like a bitch though, right?" Diego continued to fret slightly for his sister's well being. Jemma was always the one who got babied on the team. Vanya was the one without powers and who had to be protected the most, in the sibling's view. However, because of her extremely small stature, her naivety, and her innocence, Jemma was the superpowered one on the team who was treated like a baby. Though Diego didn't want to admit outright that he was caring for Jemma like this, since he liked to keep up this front of being uncaring and a lone-wolf. So he kept it as undetectable as he could, even if he was terrible at it.

She chuckled and turned off the stove so she didn't burn the food, "Just reminds me of when we were kids."

Diego clicked his tongue and crossed his arms over his chest in vexation, "Yeah, because those were _fun_ times."

"Some times," Jemma sighed while plating her now cooked food and placed it on the table. "You gotta admit."

Her brother shook his head. "Maybe..." Yeah, there may have been a small number of times where things were fun as if their lives weren't so complicated and they were just regular children. Though that didn't overshadow the fact that they were raised by a billionaire who treated them like weapons. 

A thought then struck Jemma as she grabbed a piece of french toast and started to munch on it. She huffed, "You know, I'm a bit upset with you."

Diego furrowed his eyebrows, "why?"

"For what you said to Vanya," she answered as if it were obvious.

He shook his head, "all I said was true."

She huffed and sat down at the table with her arms crossed while pursing her lips, "You could have been nicer about it-"

"There's no need to be nice, Jem." He cut her off hotly, "She could have _died_." Their powerless sister should have stayed out of the way, and he sticks by that. He cares for his siblings, whether he would admit that or not, but he did. She was the one who was most at risk. She didn't have powers to fall back on or any training. So if she was caught by those psychos, she could have been killed.

"Vanya isn't a helpless woman, okay?" Jemma explained while turning away from him slightly, "She knows how to help herself in certain situations, you're not giving her enough credit."

"She still couldn't fight against those guys."

Jemma nodded her head, unable to deny that he was right. Vanya couldn't fight against them, not for a long time. However, Jemma knew that Vanya could hold her own if she put her mind to it. "Maybe not, but she did what she could. Don't put her down for that."

"Whatever," Diego huffed out as his shoulders tensed up. Though the moment he looked down at Jemma who was looking up at him with wide blue eyes, his expression softened. He uncrossed his arms and brushed her hair once again before turning around and starting to head out, "Stay safe, okay, Jem."

"You don't want food..." She trailed off before smiling, "Oh, You too, Diego!" She said brightly while brushing off the ill feelings that had built up in her as he turned to walk out, "love you!" All she earned in return was a grunt in reply as he stomped out of the kitchen. So Jemma sat down at the table and started to eat the breakfast that she made for herself. Once again, Jemma felt alone in the large house as she had no idea where any of her other siblings were. 

* * *

Once her breakfast was done, Jemma cleaned up the kitchen and headed back upstairs. She wasn't sure what she was going to do for the day. Jemma had no idea where her other siblings were, besides Diego. Still, she wasn't sure where he had even gone. Perhaps she should head to the apartment and see if she can find Vanya to check on her. That would be a good idea.

So she started to head upstairs to her childhood bedroom. She needed to grab a few of her things, which may or may not include a bottle of vodka, but that didn't matter. Jemma started to waddle up the stairs from the kitchen and into the foyer. Just as she was going to head up the main stairs, she was halted by the call of her name, "Ms. Jemma."

She turned around to find it was Pogo who had called out for her. "Oh, hey Pogo!" She smiled widely, not seeing the melancholy aura around the walking chimp. "I was just about to get my stuff and head out. Definitely wouldn't want to leave without sayin' bye to you or mom!"

"Ah, yes," Pogo swallowed, which now drew Jemma's full attention as she could hear the sadness seeping into his tone. "Jemma, I'm afraid something has happened to Grace."

Jemma's smile slipped off of her face, knowing that this wasn't anything good. There wasn't much that she could think could happen to her android mother, the only thing was the vote that they tried to have the other day. "What happened? Did the others come up with a decision about turning her off, without me?!"

Pogo shook his head sadly, "I'm afraid that you all do not have to make that decision, the intruders from last night turned her off themselves."

It took a moment for his statement to process in her mind. She stood frozen a few steps above him but Pogo could see how she deflated at the news. As was to be expected, no one would react well to hearing that the one who had raised them all their life was gone. Even if Grace was just a robot, it didn't matter, she was still their mother, whether she was human or not. 

"T-They..." She swallowed thickly and tried to keep her emotions from seeping into her voice, "Mom's gone? They turned her off?"

Pogo nodded his head and sighed, "I'm sorry, Jemma." He wished that he could comfort her further, however, he had a feeling he knew what she was going to do now. She was going to go straight to her only coping mechanism. Drinking. He certainly didn't like the fact that Jemma had turned into an alcoholic, but he couldn't do much about it.

"Yeah, yeah." She breathed out heavily and turned to head up the stairs, "I'll just... I'll be in my room, all right. I'll need a minute to think about this." Pogo watched with sad eyes as the blonde woman shuffled up the stairs with a depressed aura radiating off of her. 

Jemma trudged her way up the remaining stairs, through the hallways, and finally made it to her bedroom. She closed the door softly and leaned against it. Though eventually, the tears started to fall from her blue eyes as she slid down onto the floor. She started to quietly sob into her knees. How could this have possibly happened? Her mom? Grace? Is gone? Why was life so shitty?!

Jemma allowed herself a moment to cry for a bit as the reality finally came crashing down on her at full force. How could her life be this fucked up? Not only was her family attacked the other night, but her mother figure was basically killed at the same time. Why couldn't she have a normal childhood? 

So in order to cope with this, she was definitely going to drown herself. The blonde stood up and hastily stumbled over to her desk to grab the bottle of amber liquid that was sitting on her desk and popped open the bottle. She didn't know what else to do, so sue her if this may be the wrong thing to do at a time like this. It was all she's ever known, all she was used to dealing with death ever since she was a teenager. She didn't keep track of the time or how much she was drinking, but she just allowed herself to wallow in her sorrow for the time being. Maybe she'd figure some more proactive ways to mourn later. Though that's a big maybe.

* * *

Later in the day, after Jemma had run through her small supply of alcohol, she found herself venturing downstairs to grab some more. She had given up on her idea of heading back to her shared apartment and decided to just stay at the academy. At least then she would make sure that her drunk ass wouldn't get into too much trouble. So she stumbled down the stairs and grabbed a new bottle before heading back to her room. She stomped back up the stairs towards where her bedroom was but paused at the sound of an argument.

"No, I mean... turn you into a monster." Jemma could hear Diego speak as she ascended the stairs. Her eyebrows furrowed as she wondered what and who he was talking about. Though if she had to guess it was probably Luther. Then there was a crash that sounded like something had been punched. Jemma jumped at it slightly before hurrying over to the sound and see that it was Luther who had just punched the wardrobe in Five's room. She had to wonder why they were in Five's room, but decided not to speak and just listen to her brother's argue with each other, like usual. "Can't hide it anymore, champ."

"He had a difficult decision to make, and he made it," Luther answered back just as harshly.

"Grow up, Luther. We're not thirteen anymore."

"That's what leaders do, by the way."

Diego continued to go on and taunt his brother, which may not be the best idea, but all they ever do is tick each other off. "He sent you on that mission all alone. Almost got you killed."

"Yeah, well at least he was there." Luther grunted, "Where were you? You and everyone else in this family? You walked out."

The pair of brothers had yet to notice that Jemma was standing at the top of the stairs right outside the bedroom door. Though that could be due to the fact that they were too distracted by their heated argument. Jemma was unsure if she should step in the middle of this. As much as she wanted them to not argue with each other, it wasn't like they would actually listen to her. Luther never took her opinion seriously, and Diego, even if he was nicer to her, would still take any opportunity to go at Luther no matter what. So he would just ignore her. In the end, she certainly didn't want to just be caught in the middle of this all. Plus, she was quite drunk as it is, adding her into the mix may not be the best thing.

Even if she was a bit drunk though, she still had slightly clear thoughts. Despite how he treated her, Jemma could understand _why_ Luther wouldn't want to leave the academy. All they've ever know is the academy, they didn't have normal lives, so she could see how he wouldn't want to leave behind everything that they knew. Though she had to agree that since he did, his life has become worse. Had he left, he may have not become half-ape, maybe he would have a normal life like everyone else. Still, he probably would be just as affected by their childhood trauma just like her and the others. Not only that, but he didn't know how to function in the real world. While the others have left on their own and ventured into the real world, they all knew how to do simple things in society. Yet Luther was still like a sheltered child, kept on the moon and isolated from everyone.

"And thank Christ that I did," Diego exclaimed as he broke Jemma out of her thoughts, "so I would have ended up just like you. Let me ask you a question. When you watch one of these nature shows..."

Jemma could now hear that Pogo was also in the room with them as he yelled at them, "Diego, please."

Though Diego continued on, "...does it turn you on?"

"So what?" Luther grounded out, "Is he just an animal to you, too now, Diego, huh?"

"Don't."

"Enough!" Pogo shouted out, absolutely fed up with this petty argument between the brothers. "This house was attacked. We barely got out with our lives. And Grace... she wasn't so lucky. Your brother is missing, and this is how you rise to the occasion? Take your nonsense elsewhere. _Now_."

The pair had the decency to look sheepish about their actions. "Sorry, Pogo."

"Yeah, sorry, Pogo."

The two shuffled out of the room like scolded children. Jemma made sure to hide herself away from her brothers, just so she could eavesdrop on their conversation.

Luther grunted, "I'm going to find Five."

"So am I," Diego gruffly agreed as Luther turned to him with a glare.

"Do you even have a clue where he might be?"

The knife-thrower shook his head with a sneer, "No, but I'll find him eventually."

Jemma then leaned over to them from her hiding spot with wide, eager eyes. She tried to make herself seem as sober as possible, but it was a bit hard to hide since she was rolling on the balls of her feet in anticipation. Even if her electric eyes were dull and muddled due to the alcohol, she was still bright-eyed at the idea of getting out of the academy. She needed a distraction from everything, like _now_. "Can I help?"

The pair jumped at her appearance, before turning to find the shorter woman staring up at them expectantly. They should have suspected that she would hear them and their shouting. Well, it wasn't like they were keeping track of where the rest of their siblings were but they should have thought that Jemma would be one to stay at the academy.

"No, Jemma," both Luther and Diego said simultaneously, something that they seemed to agree on for the first time since they were reunited. Though for different reasons. 

Jemma pouted with her bottom lip puffed out, "_Why_ not?"

"You're obviously drunk!" Luther exclaimed as he gestured to her in a scowl. Out of all of his siblings, she had to be the one behind at the academy to overhear their plans. He wouldn't have minded if it was Allison or even Vanya, but Jemma and Klaus were the last two that he would want to be involved in this. Klaus couldn't take anything seriously because of the fact that he was always high. Jemma, despite the fact that she tried to make it seem like she could, always cracks under pressure. At any bad thing she always tried to drown her problems away with a drink, he thought. It was pathetic in his opinion.

"Fast metabolism, Luther!" She explained snarkily and made sure to hide the bottle of whiskey behind her back. "I'll be all better in about forty minutes or so! Maybe less if I drink a ton of water."

The large man shook his head and glared down at her, not going to budge in the slightest bit, "You're not coming."

"And I say that I am," She strongly said with a small giggle as she bounced on the heels of her feet ready to bolt. "Can't stop what you can't catch!" It was true. Even if they said that she couldn't go, it's not like they could restrain her since she could just superspeed out of anything they tried to hold her in. Plus they'd have to catch her first, which she would never allow.

Diego groaned and walked around Jemma to start heading downstairs, "Let's just go, she won't stop bothering us until she comes with." To be honest, he wasn't completely against the idea of letting her come with them. She would most likely stop him and Luther from bickering with each other so much, which would speed up their search for Five. Not only that, but she could possibly be a good tool to search for their missing brother, considering she could use her speed to search an entire city block in a few seconds. So why not let her come with?

Jemma smiled brightly and threw herself to hug her brother around his middle, "Ah, I knew I liked you better for a reason, Diego!"

* * *

So Luther didn't have a choice about whether Jemma came or not. She is a speedster, after all, he couldn't stop her if he tried. He may have brute strength and be the "leader" of their team, but he had no say over what Jemma did, not anymore. That fact certainly infuriated Luther quite a bit since he was so used to having control over his siblings, specifically over Jemma since she was always so submissive and a people pleaser. Times have changed it seems.

Though like she said, she soon started to sober up slowly but surely, especially after chugging quite a bit of water as they started their search. At this point, she was probably only a bit tipsy and about fifteen minutes off of being completely sober. All she really did was stumble every few steps as she followed after her brothers down the sidewalk. They were currently headed to the van that Luther had last seen Five the other day. She recognized the Meritech building across the street, which gave her a sick feeling. The last time she was in there, Five had told her and Klaus that the apocalypse was coming. It felt like that was a long time ago, but really it was only a few days ago.

"This is it," Luther said as he and Diego "He's still here. This is Five's van. _I'm_ One. Damn it."

Jemma shook her head at them and walked over to the driver's side door. She raised her hand and vibrated it at a fast speed. Due to Jemma's near mastery of her power, Jemma could vibrate her molecules so fast that they would phase through anything she wanted. It came in handy in many different situations. Though for now, she just pushed her hand through the window of the car and unlocked it. She happily yelped before moving to open up the unlocked door and sat in the driver's seat. Jemma found that there were a plethora of papers covered in equations on them that she would never be able to comprehend littering them in Five's handwriting.

His obsession with the Meritech was pretty obvious, considering he literally set up a van to stake it out. Though he had told her that the apocalypse was coming, so for all she knew this prosthetics office had a bigger part to play than she first perceived.

"I know where to find Five," Diego stated holding up a copy of Vanya's book that had the same equations written in it as on the papers all over the van.

Jemma tilted her head as she stared at the book, already catching onto what Diego was saying. "The library?"

Luther looked at her, shocked that she had caught onto that so quickly before shuffling himself out of the van. It was a lucky guess, he thought. There was no way her drunk ass knew what Diego was saying after only a few seconds, even before him. No way.

So the trio then headed to the library in search of their missing brother. All the way, Jemma had to physically be a buffer between Diego and Luther since they kept glaring at each other the entire way. Honestly, the thick tension between the two was starting to suffocate her and she had half the mind to just abandon them to escape the awkwardness. There was definitely a reason why she avoided being left alone with these two, though she didn't get much of a say. Seeing as she could only blame herself for getting into this situation she shouldn't complain about it. Still didn't mean that she couldn't sulk about it for a bit. Thankfully for Jemma, they finally finished their walk to the Argyle Public Library and entered it. 

"Let's split up," Luther said once they entered the building.

Diego rolled his eyes, "Wow, good thinking."

Jemma sighed out as she walked past the two bickering men to start her own search, "Not now, guys, please."

So the three searched around the library floor by floor. Each one they went up, they didn't find any sign of Five being there. They scoped out the rows and rows of bookshelves, peaked into the study rooms, and checked every secret corner they could find. Though they couldn't find their moody brother anywhere. After getting to the top of the building, the trio met up with each other with the same unsatisfied expressions on their faces.

Luther turned to his two siblings, "Anything?"

"No," Diego grunted as Jemma shook her head. Luther sighed in frustration, they were getting nowhere with this. The ape-man turned to walk off and continue searching but Diego spoke up again, "You wanna know why I left?"

Luther turned to him with furrowed eyebrows at the sudden question, "What? What are you talking about?"

"Why I left the Academy," Diego clarified. 

Luther shrugged his large shoulders, "Yeah, 'cause you couldn't handle me being Number One."

"No," Diego shook his head, "Because that's what you do when you're seventeen. You move out, become your own person, grow up."

Luther scoffed, "Oh, yeah. You're a real grown-up."

"Like you can talk," Jemma coughed while leaning against the railing with her arms crossed. She didn't even look in his direction, already knowing that Luther was now glaring at her for even speaking. Honestly, why did he hate her so much?

Diego drew their attention back to himself, "At least I make my own decisions. You've never had to hold down a job. Pay bills. You ever even been with a girl?" Jemma giggled under her breath at that question, as much as it was disgusting to talk about her siblings' sex lives, she knew for a fact that Luther didn't have one, at all.

"I..." Luther cleared his throat, "I don't know what you're talking about--"

Diego chuckled and continued on, "Look, you wanna blame me, blame us for leaving... that's okay. But maybe you're asking yourself the wrong question. Maybe it's not about why we left. Maybe it's about why you stayed."

Jemma glanced between the two, already seeing that there was going to be a bit of an argument between them. At least they hadn't started to yell at each other. Luther stalked up to Diego and Jemma, "I stayed because the world needed me."

"You stayed because you couldn't let go of the way things used to be," Diego answered, knowing _why_ he actually stayed. Everyone could tell why Luther stayed, even Jemma in her drunkest state. "The Academy. Dad. With Allison. Dad's dead. Mom too, now. We're orphans again, dude." A melancholy atmosphere slowly wafted over the trio at the reminder of what happened to their mom. Jemma started to hug herself for comfort, knowing that she wasn't going to get any from her brothers. As much as she loved her family(Luther may or may not be apart of this) but she knew that none of them were _good_ at giving comfort. She was the empathetic one of the group, she was always there to provide as much comfort as she could to her siblings after a mission or training. Even when they were little, she didn't want anyone to be hurting or anything. So she took it upon herself to be that person who would comfort them when their mom couldn't. As an adult, it became a bit harder to do that since she rarely saw them. Though throughout that time, she didn't really have anyone to comfort her. As an adult, alcohol was her comforter. Getting drunk was her safe space. How tragic. "And things are never gonna go back to the way they used to... be."

Diego trailed off, now spying something a few feet away from them and started to walk over towards it. Luther rolled his eyes, "Do you ever stop talking?" Without saying anything else, Diego started to walk over to what he had seen, "Wow, that was easy."

Jemma spoke up and pointed while following after Diego, "I think he was distracted by that."

They all rounded the corner to find just the boy they were looking for. Five was huddled up in a corner, equations written on the walls around him as he snuggled up with a bottle of booze and the torso of a one-armed mannequin. Luther raised a questioning brow, "Is he, um...?"

"Drunk as a skunk," Diego had chuckled slightly under his breath at the sight of Five.

Jemma shook her head and slowly knelt down to get a closer look at her obviously drunk brother, "Oh, Five."

"Jem?" The young-looking boy asked confused, his voice breaking ever so slightly as he stared up at her with glassy eyes. There was a far off look in his expression as if he was remembering something, something that was more or less almost causing him to become emotional. "You're okay."

Jemma couldn't tell if his eyes were misty because of the alcohol or the fact that she could see tears starting to build up in his eyes. Either way, she brushed it off, knowing that if she even mentioned it, he would shut her out. "Of course I'm okay, Five." She smiled kindly towards him, which unknowingly broke his heart even further, "I thought I was the drinker of the family. Trying to steal my spot, huh?" Even if she tried to lighten up the situation Five still stared at her as if she were a ghost. Though Jemma just brushed it off as his drunkenness, since she knew that even she could do weird stuff while under the influence. She started to try and help the young-looking boy up, "Come on, we've gotta go."

* * *

"Well, we can't go back to the house," Luther stated as the siblings all now walked down a dark alleyway after getting Five. Him being the strongest out of them was tasked with carrying the inebriated Five. Jemma trailed after them holding the mannequin that Five had with him. She eyed it in confusion but brought it along with them since Five was insistent that they bring her with them. "It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment."

Diego nodded his head in agreement, "My place is closer. No one will look for him there."

"I'd offer my apartment... but it's not really mine." Jemma chuckled nervously as her brothers took a glance at her. She shrunk slightly under their stares, "I was just saying."

Five then burped which caused Luther to glare down at him in his arms, "If you vomit on me..."

"You know what's funny? Aah!" Five chuckled, "I'm going through puberty. Huh. Twice. And I... I drank that whole bottle, didn't I? That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it's gone." Jemma grew anxious at the reminder of what Five had said to her and Klaus a while ago. Luther and Diego brushed it off as drunk rambling and didn't notice the expression that was on Jemma's face. "What are you guys talkin' about?"

Luther huffed, "Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night."

"They came looking for you." Diego eleborated, "So I need you to focus. What do they want?"

Five grumbled under his breath, "Hazel and Cha-Cha."

"Who?" Diego glanced at Five over his shoulder.

Luther grunted, "You know, I hate code names."

Five continued on his explanation of the two assassins, "Ah, the best of the best. Except for me, of course."

"Best of what?" Jemma had a sinking feeling she knew what he was best at. If going by what she had seen of him for the past few days, she would have a pretty good guess about what it was he does. She didn't want to really believe that he was a killer. Even growing up at the academy, they weren't necessarily trained to kill, only to main and injure. There were a few times where people had died at their hands, but it was only once or twice. A bunch of kids couldn't just straight up kill people, even then they had morals. Though Five said he's been gone for decades now, those morals most certainly could have been skewed and twisted.

Though Five didn't answer his question, he just started to ramble again, "You know, Delores always said she hated when I drink. She said it made me surly--"

Growing fed up, Diego turned around sharply to face Five, "Hey!"

"Hm? Yeah?"

"I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want? We just wanna protect you."

"Protect me. I don't need your protection, Diego. Do you have any idea how many people I've killed? No. I'm the Four frickin' Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming." He then turned over Luther's shoulder and started to throw up. Jemma grimaced. She grimaced at the sight of Five being sick and also thinking about what they would do now about the apocalypse.

* * *

After the awkward and somewhat quiet walk to Diego's gym, the four of them finally made it inside. Luther deposited the now unconscious Five onto the small bed in the corner of the room. Jemma gently placed down the mannequin, who she was told is named Delores, on a chair. Apparently, Five had grown attached to the inanimate object while out in the apocalypse. It may sound strange in the beginning, but she understood it, considering there must have been no one else in the future for him to talk with. Diego walked over to look down at Five with the rest of them, "Funny. If I didn't know he was such a prick, I'd say he looks almost adorable in his sleep." 

"Well, don't worry." Luther grunted, "He'll sober up eventually. Be back to his normal, unpleasant self."

Jemma tilted her head, "He's not that bad, honestly." At the looks that she was getting from her brothers, she sighed heavily, "Okay maybe he is."

"Yeah, I can't wait that long." Diego commented, "I need to find out what his connection is with these lunatics before someone else dies."

Luther sighed, "All that stuff he was saying before... What do you think he meant by that?"

Diego shushed him with a finger as he heard something coming from outside. He brandished one of his knives and motioned for Jemma to also be quiet, which she was, as he tip-toed towards the door. He then yanked the door open with his knife held in his hand, ready to be thrown.

"You throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, I'm pressin' charges." Al, the owner of the gym, said as he came into the room.

Diego rolled his eyes, "What do you want, Al?"

"I ain't your secretary," Al told him with a stern finger pointed at him.

"Yeah."

"Some lady called for you, said she needs your help."

Diego's eyebrows furrowed, "What lady?"

"I dunno." Al shrugged his shoulders, "Some, uh, detective. I think she said her name was, uh, blotch or somethin'."

"Patch?" Diego smiled, "She needs my help."

"She needs you to meet her at that motel," the older man handed Diego a piece of paper with the information on it, "a dump on Calhoun."

"When?"

"About half an hour ago," He gruffly said and turned to leave, "Uh, said she found your brother."

Al left the baffled siblings who shared a look with each other. They then turned their attention to their now _found_ brother with the same confusion, "Well, that didn't make sense."

The three of them shared a look as the same thought crossed their minds, "Klaus."

"Go," Luther told Diego who had already started to head out of the room, "I'll wait here with..." The door shut loudly as Diego was already starting to run out of the gym. "...Him."

"I'm staying too," Jemma stared at Luther with a small sneer while sitting herself down on the bed besides Five. She gazed down at her young-looking brother before brushing a hand over his black hair gently. She clicked her tongue, "don't act like I'm not here."

Luther glowered at her before sitting down in a chair not too far away, "Shouldn't you be getting drunk somewhere?"

Jemma snorted at the lame attempt of a jab. If he wanted to hurt her feelings, he should try to be original. Mentioning her alcoholism isn't going to affect her all that much. She shook her head, "Shouldn't you be sulking about Allison somewhere?" That shut him up. Though she wasn't being that original either. However, she could tell it hit him a bit harder than his jab hit her. Oh, how Luther could get so soft at just the mention of his dear Allison. Jemma turned away from Luther to look back down at Five and his peaceful expression. She liked seeing Five like this, without any worry, annoyance, or anger on his youthful face. At the moment, he looked like a kid again, just like the last time she saw him. For a moment, her mind was taken off of the apocalypse as she thought back to the better times. When they were all kids and together, fighting crime and having fun. Of course, she didn't think about the neglect their father gave them, but just the good times. She could only hope that Diego found Klaus and made sure he was safe. Though nothing ever goes right with their family, so who now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Jemma, I feel so bad for her and how she's upset about Grace. Though we've got some sibling "bonding" between her, Diego, and Luther while they went looking for Five. I kind of like the fact that she was the buffer between the two, or at least trekked to be. I'm sure we'll find out why exactly Luther treats Jemma like he does later. Also, I totally see Diego being that older brother who tries not to act like he loves Jemma but secretly loves her to pieces. He's a big teddy bear, as we all know. Though who knows how she's going to react to Klaus and everything that happened to him. 
> 
> So if you didn't know, I took a hiatus for a few weeks. I had way too many exams and school stuff to worry about, and I just got a new job, so I had to figure out a schedule for myself. Though I am back now, I've got everything under control and I'm going to start updating again. Though I am only going to do that on Sunday/Mondays. I've kind of abandoned the idea of uploading my stories on like the schedule I had before (a different story every week and alternating between them like a cycle) I'll update whatever story I have finished that week. Hope that's a good explication! Anyway, let me know what you thought of this chapter, until the next one, have a great day or night!


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